Objective To investigate the effect of GDNF on pancreatic cancer cell proliferation and chemotaxis.Methods The cell counting, MTT and flow cytometry were employed to investigate whether the neurotrophic factor GDNF can stimulate the proliferation of pancreatic carcinoma cells.Meanwhile, the trans-well invasion chamber was used to observe the chemotactic effect of GDNF on pancreatic cancer cells.Results The cells were exposed to incremental concentrations of human re-combinant GDNF (0-120 ng/mL).We found that the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells was stim-ulated by GDNF in a dose-dependent manner and the number of cells in "S" phenotype was increased;The count of cells was increased by GDNF in a dose-dependent manner.Conclusion GDNF can stimu-late the proliferation and invasion of pancreatic cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner.