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Updated: Apr 16, 2026
Isolation of Stem Cells from Human Pancreatic Cancer Xenografts
Published on: September 26, 2010
Isolation of a growth factor stress-induced pancreatic cancer sub-population: insight into changes due to
Byron Baron1, Takao Kitagawa2, Kazuyuki Nakamura3
1Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Malta, Msida, Malta Department of Biochemistry and Functional Proteomics, Graduate School of Medicine, Yamaguchi, Japan.
Background:
Micro-environment plays a crucial role in determining the phenotypes within a tumor.
Materials And Methods:
In order to understand how the micro-environment affects pancreatic cancer, KLM1 cells were cultured under growth factor stress by culturing in foetal bovine serum (FBS)-free and reduced (1%) medium over several passages to mimic the core of a solid tumor with low vascularisation.
Results:
Proteomic analysis on these conditioned pancreatic cancer cells, called KLM1-S, compared to the parent cell line KLM1 revealed that a number of proteins including α-enolase, GAPDH, GRP78, HSP60 and STIP-1 were dysregulated. Additionally, KLM1-S cells exhibited a 250-fold increase in half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) over the parent cell line KLM1.
Conclusion:
By decreasing their replication rate and levels of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), KLM1-S cells are able to resist gemcitabine (GEM). The results obtained suggest that in KLM1 different phenotypes are a result of cellular plasticity rather than a committed transformation.
