Role of the phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase-Akt signal pathway in the proliferation of human pancreatic ductal carcinoma cell lines.

: Phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase (PI3K) and Akt mediate survival signals and allow the cells to escape apoptosis in various human cancers. We postulated that LY294002, a PI3K inhibitor, might inactivate Akt, consequently inhibiting cell proliferation in 3 human pancreatic ductal carcinoma cell lines, PSN-1, PANC-1, and KP-4. LY294002 (50 micromol/L) caused a decrease in phosphorylated Akt and inhibition of cell proliferation in a time-dependent manner, but there was no obvious induction of apoptosis. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that pancreatic cancer cells treated with 50 micromol/L LY294002 underwent G1 arrest, which was associated with dephosphorylation of the ppRB protein, a decrease in the protein expression of cyclin D and E, and their activating partners Cdk2, 4, and 6 with simultaneous accumulation of P27/Kip1. Our data indicate that P27/Kip1 accumulation by Akt inactivation could induce cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase and suggest that the PI3K-Akt pathway plays an important role in cell proliferation in human pancreatic ductal carcinoma cells.