Inhibition of caspase‐1 induces cell death in pancreatic carcinoma cells and potentially modulates expression levels of bcl‐2 family proteins

Caspase-1 (interleukin-1beta-converting enzyme) is reported to play an important role in the regulation of apoptosis. We investigated the inhibition of caspase-1 by the cell permeable caspase-1 inhibitor Ac-AAVALLPAVLLALLAP-YVAD.CHO in pancreatic carcinoma cells. Inhibition of caspase-1 induced a non-apoptotic/"necrotic-like" cell death in AsPC-1, BxPC-3, MiaPaCa-2 and Panc-1 cells. Expression levels of bcl-2 and bax were up-regulated in caspase-1 inhibitor-treated cells while that of bcl-x(L) remained unaltered. Our observations support our previous findings that caspase-1 is potentially involved in anti-apoptotic processes in pancreatic carcinoma.