The annual incidence of pancreatic carcinoma has been increasing worldwide, and the overall 5-year survival rate has remained at approximately 5%. We re-evaluated 30 autopsy cases histologically diagnosed as pancreatic carcinoma from 1994 through 2010 at Nippon Medical School Hospital. The mean patient age was 69.5 years, with no significant differences between male and female patients. The loc...

Fewer than 25 cases of hepatoid carcinoma of the pancreas have been reported in the literature. We present a case in a 61-year-old male with a remote history of Hodgkin's lymphoma and gastric neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia. On surveillance endoscopic ultrasound, an 8 × 5 mm cystic lesion was seen in the tail of the pancreas. MRI showed a focal pancreatic duct cut-off with mild ductal dilation....

The high level of interest in the pancreatic acinar cell over the past 25 years is a reflection of the fact that this system is a paradigm for the study of protein synthesis, sorting, and secretion. Moreover, pancreatic inflammation is a serious clinical problem that may relate to a disorder in the basic organization of this cell. The discussions by Pandol, Steer, Grendell, and myself are close...

This protocol permits rapid isolation (in less than 1 hr) of murine pancreatic acini, making it possible to maintain them in culture for more than one week. More than 20 x 10(6) acinar cells can be obtained from a single murine pancreas. This protocol offers the possibility to independently process as many as 10 pancreases in parallel. Because it preserves acinar architecture, this model is wel...

Pancreatic carcinomas can be induced in rat, guinea pig and hamster by a variety of carcinogens. The types of neoplasms which arise vary with the species of rodent. In the rat, they consist exclusively of acinar cells, in the other species the lesions are adenocarcinomas resembling those derived from pancreatic ductules and ducts, those in hamster more so than in guinea pigs. Careful sequential...

Pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor was examined for growth-promoting activity on five cell lines using standard cell culture techniques. One cell line, AR4-2J, derived from a rat pancreatic acinar cell carcinoma, responded with significantly increased incorporation of [3H]thymidine and colony formation. Pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor stimulated the incorporation of [3H]thymidine in ...

The intronic microRNA (miR)-342 has been proposed as a potent tumor-suppressor gene. miR-342 is found to be downregulated or epigenetically silenced in multiple different tumor sites, and this loss of expression permits the upregulation of several key oncogenic pathways. In several different cell lines, lower miR-342 expression results in enhanced proliferation and metastasis potential, both in...

UNLABELLED Desmoplasia and an inflammatory environment are defining features of pancreatic cancer. Unclear is how pancreatic cells that undergo oncogenic transformation can cross-talk with immune cells and how this contributes to the development of pancreatic lesions. Here, we demonstrate that pancreatic acinar cells expressing mutant KRAS can expedite their transformation to a duct-like phenot...