Summary The GER human pancreatic carcinoma cell line possesses receptors for 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3. We report that the vitamin D analogue EB 1089 inhibits the growth of these cells in vitro and when grown as tumour xenografts in immunodeficient mice. Tumour-bearing mice were given EB 1089 at a dose of 5 gg kg-' body weight i.p. thrice weekly for 4-6 weeks. Tumour growth was significantly inhibited in treated animals compared with controls in the absence of hypercalcaemia. These findings may have therapeutic implications in pancreatic cancer.

Primary human panceratic exocrine adenocarcinoma has been established in tissue culture and as xenografts in immune-deficient nu/nu mice. The cell line has a doubling time of 36 h and grows as a confluent monolayer together with a constant population of free-floating cells. Evidence of tumourigenicity was provided by growth on an early diploid fibroblast monolayer and in soft agar, and as solid tumours in immune-deficient nu/mu mice. Chromosome analysis of the cultured cells confirmed their tumour origin. Xenografts established from the cell line or directly from primary tumour tissue have retained a similar histology to the original tumour on serial transplantation. An electrophoretic study of exportable pancreatic digestive enzymes and a number of intracellular enzymes has shown that the cell line and xenografts maintain a human intracellular enzyme profile, but do not produce pancreatic digestive enzymes. Images Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5 p150-a

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A human pancreatic adenocarcinoma lambda gt11 expression library was differentially screened with mRNA derived from normal and cancerous pancreatic tissues. Five clones preferentially hybridized with pancreatic adenocarcinoma mRNA. cDNA inserts from 4 of these clones were amplified by PCR, labelled with alpha 32P and used in Northern blot analysis against mRNA prepared from a variety of tumour and normal tissues. lambda GER-4 identified a pancreas-associated mRNA (greater than 10 kb) with no homology with known sequences at either the nucleic or amino-acid level. lambda GER-2 identified a 1.7-kb mRNA transcript that was over-expressed in mRNA prepared from pancreas, colon, breast, lung and gastric tumours relative to normal tissues. Sequence analysis and restriction-enzyme mapping showed that this clone was completely homologous with the active form of human elongation factor EF-1 alpha. This high level of EF-1 alpha-mRNA expression in tumour tissues lends support to the increasing evidence that EF-1 alpha is an important regulator of the cell cycle.