Fig. 1

Establishment of highly metastatic PCCs. a Establishing PDAC cells. Parental PDAC cells were splenic transplanted into nude mice; liver metastases were harvested after 2–4 weeks. This process was performed 3 times. b Cellular morphology of parental PDAC cells and highly metastatic PDAC cells. Scale bars = 100 μm. c Migration and invasion assays were performed over 36 and 18 h respectively. Graphs show numbers of cells calculated from five fields. Original magnification: 40×. Scale bars =100 μm. *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001. d Cell viability of cancer cells as determined by CellTiter-Glo luminescent cell viability assay. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. e SUIT-2 and SLMS cells were intrasplenic injected in nude mice and the liver metastases were harvested. Gross pathology indicated metastatic lesions. f Phospho-protein kinase array of SUIT-2 and SLMS cells. Right: most significant gene alterations