Objective To investigate the effects of two inhibitors of arachidonic acid metabolic pathway (5-cyclooxygenase blockade MK886 and COX 2 blockade celecoxib) on growth and VEGF mRNA expression of human pancreatic cancer cell SW1990.MethodsPancreatic cancer cells SW1990 were cultured with different concentrations of MK886,celecoxib,MK886 and celecoxib,then the cell proliferation was detected by using CCK-8,BLT1 mRNA,PGE2 mRNA and VEGF mRNA expressions were determined by RTPCR.ResultsAfter 10 μmol/L MK886 or 20 mmol/L celecoxib treatment for 24 h,the growth of SW1990 was greatly suppressed ( 1.80 ±0.06 vs 1.65 ±0.10,2.04 ±0.03 vs 1.86 ±0.02,P ＜0.01 ),and the growth suppression of SW1990 cells was increased accompanying the raised concentration of MK886 or celecoxib.After both MK886 and celecoxib treatment for 12 h,the growth of SW 1990 cells was much obviously suppressed (1.72 ±0.05 vs 1.52 ±0.05,P ＜0.01 ).After celecoxib treatment for 48 h,the BLT1 mRNA,PGE2 mRNA and VEGFmRNA expressions were not significantly changed,but the expressions of PGE2 mRNA were significantly decreased ( P ＜ 0.05 ).After MK886 or MK886 + celecoxib treatment,the expressions of BLT1 mRNA,VEGF mRNA were significantly decreased ( P ＜ 0.05 ),but the expressions of PGE2 mRNA were not significantly changed when compared to control group.ConclusionsTwo metabolic pathways of arachidonic acid have a close relation with occurrence and proliferation of pancreatic cancer,when both of the pathways were blocked,the proliferation of the pancreatic cancer cell was suppressed obviously.