Study of the products secreted by pancreatic ductal cells and analysis of the mechanisms involved in the discharge of these products have been limited by a lack of in vitro models available to experimentally approach this problem. To this aim, this investigation has been designed to determine if a human pancreatic carcinoma cell line of ductal origin (PANC-1) has maintained some of the differentiated characteristics of normal mammalian pancreatic ductal epithelium. Morphological and immunocytochemical studies indicated that, similar to isolated rat pancreatic ducts, the PANC-1 cell line contained (a) intermediate filaments of the epithelial class, (b) a basolateral plasma membrane localization of Na+, KC+-ATPase, (c) complete tight junctions based on freeze-fracture analysis, (d) a cuboidal morphology when grown on Type I collagen-coated nitrocellulose filters or isolated amnion basement membrane, and (e) normal ductal epithelial ultrastructural features. Biochemical analysis indicated that, also similar to isolated rat and human pancreatic ducts, the PANC-1 cell line contained (a) γ-glutamyltranspeptidase, (b) carbonic anhydrase, and (c) Na+, K+-ATPase based on [3H]ouabain binding assays. Comparative studies with other transformed lines indicated that PANC-1 cells have similarities to ductal lines such as MDCK cells but are markedly different from mesenchymally derived lines such as L cells. In addition, as with isolated rat and human ducts, PANC-1 cells synthesize and secrete sulfated proteins with a MW range of ∼180K to 1 million daltons, with the predominant species being 660K daltons as indicated by gel filtration and sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. These results indicate that the PANC-1 cell line has maintained at least some of the differentiated characteristics of normal pancreatic ductal epithelial cells and may be a useful system for study of ductal secretory products as well as the mechanisms involved in the discharge of these products.