The cells were plated at a density of 1 × 105 in 6 well plates, allowed to attach overnight, and exposed to the treatments described in the figure legends. The cells were then incubated with 10 M DCFHDA for 20 min at 37 C in a 5% CO2 incubator, washed and resuspended in PBS at 1 × 106 cells ml. The cells were analyzed by FACS flow cytometry at an excitation wavelength of 514 nm, and the fluorescence intensity of DCF was measured at an emission wavelength of 525 nm. Untreated cells served as controls. The amount of intracellular ROS was expressed as the fold increase of DCF fluorescence com pared with the control. Analysis of autophagy by GFP LC3 redistribution To monitor the formation of GFP LC3 puncta, the cells were transiently transfected with 1. 0 mg GFP LC3 plas mid, and then treated as described in the figure legends.

After treatment, autophagy was measured by light microscopic quantification of cells transfected with GFP LC3, as previously described. Statistical analysis Results are expressed as mean SD. Statistical analysis was performed using the Students t test, with P 0. 05 deemed as statistically significant. All experiments were repeated selleck inhibitor at least three times. Results DHA possesses cytotoxic effects on pancreatic cancer cells DHA is cytotoxic for a variety of types of cancer cells, while essentially having no effect in normal cells. To determine DHA effects on pancreatic cancer cells, we treated BxPC 3 and PANC 1 human pancreatic can cer cells with different concentrations of DHA for 24 h. This treatment was followed by a cell proliferation and cytotoxicity assay to assess cell viability.

DHA significantly inhibited the {full article| selleck chemical|selleck chemical|selelck kinase inhibitor|order LDC000067 growth of the pancreatic can cer cells, and DHA cytotoxicity in these cells was dose and time dependent. We used a clo nogenic assay to confirm the effects of DHA on these cell lines and to determine whether DHA affected long term colony formation, the number of surviving colonies was also markedly inhibited. These results indicate that DHA has a specific effect on human pan creatic cancer cell lines. Treatment with DHA induces caspase 3 dependent cell death and autophagy in pancreatic cancer cells To determine if apoptosis depends on caspase 3, we first assessed caspase 3 cleavage, an essential step in the cas pase pathway. A western blot analysis in DHA treated cells revealed decreased procaspase 3 levels, and in creased levels of the cleaved, active forms.

Following DHA treatment, we detected caspase 3 cleav age in the two cancer cell lines for all concentrations and time. We next determined whether DHA treatment induced autophagy in tumor cells. The autophagy marker LC3 II, a cleaved and then conjugated to phosphatidylethanolamine product of microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3, was assessed in an immunoblotting assay.