Fig. 1

siRNA-mediated PDK1 downregulation inhibits cell proliferation and anchorage-independent growth of PDAC cells. AsPC-1 (a-c), HPAF-II (d-f) and CFPAC-1 (g-i) cells were transfected with two siRNA sequences specifically targeting PDK1 or a non-targeting siRNA (siControl) and then manually counted with trypan blue exclusion (a,d,g) or plated on soft agar (b,e,h), as specified in the Methods. Data are expressed as percentage of cells transfected with siControl and are means ± SEM of n ≥ 3 independent experiments performed in duplicate. T-test and GraphPad Prism version 6.0 were used for statistical analysis, and data from cells transfected with each siRNA were compared to data from cells transfected with siControl. Representative blots confirming efficient PDK1 downregulation are also shown (c,f,i,). GAPDH was used as loading control. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001