PubMedCrossRef 95. Radulescu RT: Oncoprotein metastasis and its suppression revisited. J Exp Clin Cancer Res 2010, 29:30.PubMedCrossRef Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing

interests. Authors’ contributions CJT and MCJ wrote the paper. CHH, SCS, and WR L discussed and participated in paper writing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”
“Background Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is among the leading causes of cancer related mortality throughout the world [1]. Currently surgical resection is still the main therapeutic approach. However most cases are unresectable when diagnosed. Even in resectable cases, the long-term outcome remains unsatisfactory. The statistics disclosed that one-year survival rate was less than 10%, 5-year survival rate was less than 1% and median survival duration ranged from three to four months, respectively. The clinic reality mentioned selleck chemical above made chemotherapy essential for a cure. However drug-resistance can compromise the therapeutic effectiveness which is the major concern nowadays [2]. Parthenolide (PTL) is the main extracts of sesquiterpene lactone isolated from Mexican and Indian

herbs such as feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium). PTL has been used conventionally to treat migraine and rheumatoid arthritis for centuries [3]. Recently it has been reported that PTL may induce inhibition of proliferation and apoptosis in various human cancer cells in vitro, such find more as colorectal cancer, hepatoma, cholangiocarcinoma [4–6]. In addition, PTL can sensitize resistant

cancer cells to anti-tumor agents [7, 8] and act as a chemo-preventive agent in an animal model of UVB-induced Pyruvate dehydrogenase lipoamide kinase isozyme 1 skin cancer [9]. Meanwhile data have showed that PTL-induced apoptosis is associated with inhibition of transcription factor nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB) [3, 10], mitochondrial dysfunction and increase of reactive oxygen [11, 12]. However the detailed molecular mechanisms of anticancer effect of PTL are largely unknown. Our study disclosed that PTL induced apoptosis in BxPC-3 cells mainly by influencing bcl-2 family. PTL and its sesquiterpene lactone analogues might be new chemotherapeutic agents for pancreatic cancer. Methods Cell culture and reagents Human pancreatic cancer cell line BxPC-3 was purchased from Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Shanghai, China). It was cultured in dulbecco’s modified eagle’s medium (DMEM, HyClone, Logan, Utah, USA) containing 10% fetal bovine serum (JRH Biosciences, Lenexa, Kansas, USA), peniciline streptomycin mixture at 37°C in a humidified atmosphere of 5% CO2 and 95% air. Parthenolide (Sigma, St. Louis, MO, USA) supplied as a crystalline solid was dissolved in dimethylsulfoxide (100 mM stock) and stored at -20°C. Antibodies used in this study were obtained from Santa Cruz (CA, USA) and Cell Signaling Technology (CA, USA) respectively. MTT colorimetric survival assay BxPC-3 cells were plated at a density of 1.