OBJECTIVETo verify the obtained immunogenic membrane antigens candidate of pancreatic cancer in the performed research.

METHODSPancreatic cancer cell line SW1990 membrane protein underwent immunoblot with serum IgG purified from clinically collected sera of 66 pancreatic cancer patients. Number 3 and number 8 positive dots of immunoblot were identified by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and peptide mass fingerprinting matching. The candidate membrane antigens were further validated in cell lines by RT-PCR, real-time PCR and Western blot, and their different expression level of gene and protein in pancreatic cancer cell lines were contrastly studied.

RESULTSNumber 3 and number 8 positive dots were identified as: voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC3) and catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT). RT-PCR, real-time PCR and Western blot showed that gene and protein of VDAC3 and COMT were expressed in the pancreatic cancer cell line SW1990, AsPc and P3 respectively.

CONCLUSIONVDAC3 and COMT might be the candidate immunogenic membrane antigens of human pancreatic cancer, and their gene and protein are differently expressed in the pancreatic cancer cell line SW1990, AsPc and P3.