How are pancreatic stellate cells activated?
Supernants of cultured human pancreatic cancer cell line SW1990 could stimulate the proliferation of cultured human PSCs, and this stimulation is partly via GAL-3 in the supernants which was expressed and secreted by SW1990 cells. Supernants of cultured human PSCs could stimulate the proliferation and invasion of SW1990 cells, and this was partly related to GAL-3 expressed by cancer cells, because GAL-3 monoclonal antibody could partly inhibit this stimulation. This study, performed by a team led by Professor, Xing-Peng Wang , from Shanghai First People¡¯s Hospital, affiliated with Shanghai Jiaotong University is described in a research article to be published on April 7, 2008 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal cancers. Difficulty of early diagnosis and resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy leads to a low five-year survival rate. New therapeutic targets need to be found for pancreatic cancer treatment. Previous studies showed GAL
