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Establishment of the First Well-differentiated Human Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumor Model.

Author
Abstract
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Clinical options for systemic therapy of neuroendocrine tumors (NET) are limited. Development of new drugs requires suitable representative in vitro and in vivo model systems. So far, the unavailability of a human model with a well-differentiated phenotype and typical growth characteristics has impaired pre-clinical research in NET. Herein, we establish and characterize a lymph node-derived cell line (NT-3) from a male patient with well-differentiated pancreatic NET. Neuroendocrine differentiation and tumor biology was compared to existing NET cell lines BON and QGP-1. In vivo growth was assessed in a xenograft mouse model. The neuroendocrine identity of NT-3 was verified by expression of multiple NET specific markers, which were highly expressed in NT-3 compared to BON and QGP-1. Additionally, NT-3 expressed and secreted insulin. Until now, this well-differentiated phenotype is stable since 58 passages. The proliferative labeling index, measured by Ki-67, of 14.6±1.0% in NT-3 is akin to the original tumor (15-20%), and was lower than in BON (80.6±3.3%) and QGP-1 (82.6±1.0%). NT-3 highly expressed somatostatin receptors (SSTRs: 1, 2, 3 and 5). Upon subcutaneous transplantation of NT-3 cells, recipient mice developed tumors with an efficient tumor take rate (94%) and growth rate (139±13%) by 4 weeks. Importantly, morphology and neuroendocrine marker expression of xenograft tumors resembled the original human tumor.

Year of Publication
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2018
Journal
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Molecular cancer research : MCR
Date Published
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2018
ISSN Number
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1541-7786
URL
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http://mcr.aacrjournals.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=29330294
DOI
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10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-17-0163
Short Title
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Mol Cancer Res
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