Fig. 1

Down regulation of XIAP expression sensitizes pancreatic cancer cells to gemcitabine. a PANC-1 and b MIA PaCa-2 cells were infected with lentiviral vectors encoding two XIAP-specific shRNAs (sh-1 and sh-2) and a luciferase-specific control (sh-Luc). Stable cell pools were generated using puromycin drug selection. XIAP knockdown was confirmed by Western blot analysis and resulted in expression levels of 49% - 37% (PANC-1, sh-1, sh-2) and 42% - 28% (MIA PaCa-2, sh-1, sh-2), respectively, with the sh-2 clone being slightly more potent in both cell lines. The cells were treated with low-dose gemcitabine (0.5 μM) and the viability was assessed 4 days later. While treatment of the sh-Luc controls did not induce cell death, the percentage of live cells after treatment with gemcitabine decreased by ~40% for both cell lines and both XIAP shRNA clones. c and d, PANC-1, ***p < 0.001 and **p < 0.01. e and f, MIA PaCa-2, *p < 0.05 (n = 3)