Pancreatic cancer is one of the most malignant tumors that responded poorly to currently available\r\nchemotherapy. Casticin, a flavonoid compound, has been reported to induce apoptosis in various\r\ncancer cell lines. However, there is no report on the anti-pancreatic cancer potential of casticin. In the\r\npresent study, we showed for the first time that casticin strongly inhibits the growth of PANC-1\r\npancreatic carcinoma cells. The anti-proliferative effect assessed by 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-\r\nDiphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay demonstrated that casticin inhibited the growth of PANC-1\r\ncells in a dose-dependent manner. Further analysis using flow cytometry and immunoblot showed that\r\nthe growth inhibitory effect of casticin was associated with cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase and\r\ninduction of apoptosis. Mechanistic studies indicated that the induction of apoptosis was associated\r\nwith up-regulation of pro-apoptotic protein Bax, down-regulation of anti-apoptotice protein Bcl-2 and\r\nactivation of caspase-3. These findings suggest that casticin may be a promising candidate for treating\r\nhuman pancreatic cancer.
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