To identify pancreatic cancer cell lines that could be used to examine hK7-dependent cleavage of desmosomal proteins in a cell-based system, cell lysates were prepared from Panc-1 and BxPC-3 cell lines and assessed for the levels of Dsg1 and Dsg2 by western blot analysis. The gene discussed is KLK7; the disease is familial pancreatic carcinoma.