In vitro activity: Gemcitabine induced NF-κB activity in BxPC-3, PANC-1, and MIA PaCa-2 cells and decreased the level of the NF-κB inhibitor IκBα in BxPC-3 and PANC-1 cells. Treatment of BxPC-3 cells with low dose Gemcitabine for 48 hours results in a dose-dependent increase in NF-κB binding. In contrast, NF-κB DNA binding is decreased in BxPC-3 cells treated with the higher Gemcitabine doses for 48 h; however, 24-h treatment with these higher doses increases NF-κB binding in BxPC-3 cells.

Cell Assay: BxPC-3, MIA PaCa-2, and PANC-1 cells are seeded in a 96-well plate. After 24 hours, cells are treated with vehicle, DMAPT and/or Gemcitabine for an additional 24 hours or 48 hours. Apoptosis is quantified using the Cell Death Detection ELISA to detect the amount of cytoplasmic histone-associated DNA fragments and expressed relative to vehicle-treated cells.