Quercetin-3-O-glucoside suppresses pancreatic cancer cell migration induced by tumor-deteriorated growth factors in vitro.

Analysis using Universal exPress Codes (UPCs) with the public microarray database GEO indicates significantly higher mRNA expressions of VEGF-A, bFGF, and bFGFR2 in pancreatic cancers than those in normal pancreatic tissues. Human pancreatic cancer cell line CFPAC-1 and SNU-213 had relatively differential sensitivity to exogenous VEGF-A, bFGF, and TGF-β1 in migration property. Treatment of quercetin-3-O-glucoside suppressed the migratory activity induced by TGF-β and VEGF-A even at relatively low dosages in CFPAC-1, but not in bFGF-activated SNU-213 cells. However, high dosages of quercetin-3-O-glucoside sufficiently suppressed the migratory activity induced by bFGF in SNU-213 cells. Furthermore, co-treatment with low dose of gemcitabine plus quercetin-3-O-glucoside showed synergistic inhibition effects on the infiltrate activity induced by bFGF in CFPAC-1 and SNU-213 cells. These results collectively suggested that quercetin-3-O glucoside could act as an inhibitor of local metastasis induced by various growth factors in pancreatic cancers and be an effective adjuvant to boost chemotherapeutic efficacy of gemcitabine, currently used in pancreatic cancers.