Molecular determinants of the antitumor effects of trichostatin A in pancreatic cancer cells

Figure 3 Expression and phosphorylation of signal transduction proteins in TSA-treated PC cell lines. BxPC-3, AsPC-1 and CAPAN-1 cells were treated with TSA at concentrations up to 10 × 10^-7 mol/L for 24 h. A: Expression and phosphorylation of the indicated proteins was analyzed by immunoblotting. Phospho-proteins were detected first, followed by a reprobing of the blots with anti-protein specific antibodies. Actin was used as a housekeeping control protein; B-D: Fluorescence signal intensities of phospho (P) proteins and total proteins were quantified using Odyssey^® software version 3.0. Subsequently, the ratios phospho-ERK/ERK protein (B), phospho-AKT/AKT protein (C) and phospho-p38/p38 protein (D) were determined. A ratio of 100% corresponds to control cells cultured without TSA. Data of 8 independent experiments were used to calculate mean values and SE; ^aP < 0.05 vs control cultures, ^cP < 0.05 vs BxPC-3 cells (Wilcoxon’s rank sum test).