NIK is involved in constitutive activation of the alternative NF-kappaB pathway and proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells.

Pancreatic cancer has one of the poorest prognoses among human neoplasms. Constitutive activation of NF-kappaB is frequently observed in pancreatic cancer cells and is involved in their malignancy. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism of this constitutive NF-kappaB activation. Here, we show that the alternative pathway is constitutively activated and NF-kappaB-inducing kinase (NIK), a mediator of the alternative pathway, is significantly expressed in pancreatic cancer cells. siRNA-mediated silencing of NIK expression followed by subcellular fractionation revealed that NIK is constitutively involved in the processing of p100 and nuclear transport of p52 and RelB in pancreatic cancer cells. In addition, NIK silencing significantly suppressed proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells. These results clearly indicate that NIK is involved in the constitutive activation of the alternative pathway and controls cell proliferation in pancreatic cancer cells. Therefore, NIK might be a novel target for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.