CUR - The Council on Undergraduate Research

Evaluating Three Different Histological Subtypes Seen in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma in Mouse Model

Maggie M. Granatir, Melissa L. Fishel, George E. Sandusky, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, 340 W 10th Street Fairbanks Hall, Indianapolis, IN 46202, Department of Pediatrics and Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. In 2019, about 57,000 Americans, slightly more men than women, were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In 2019, approximately 45,000 people died of pancreatic cancer. The average life expectancy is around 4-8 months. Cancer cell heterogeneity examines how different tumor cells show distinct morphological and phenotypical changes. This is one of the main motives of tumor aggressiveness, metastatic potential, and resistance to therapy. Differentially tumorigenic cell subtypes have been suggested to lead to pancreatic adenocarcinoma. In this project, 80 pancreatic tumors were evaluated, grown from a pancreatic cell line (Pa02C), and implanted into a genetically engineered mouse (GEM). The pancreatic cell line came from a patient with a metastatic lesion in the liver. The tumors were stained with H&E to evaluate tumor phenotypes and Ki67 to measure cell proliferation. The results indicated 3 different morphological subtypes of cancer cells: ductal, squamous, and mucinous adenocarcinoma. Mucinous adenocarcinoma involved most of the tumor area, and ductal adenocarcinoma had the highest amount of cell proliferation.  After reviewing all tumors, it was unusual to find that the primary tumor cells had de-differentiated into mucinous and squamous carcinomas, while only a small area remained as the original tumor.

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