Mechanism of Ascorbate-Induced Cell Death in Human Pancreatic Cancer Cells: Role of Bcl-2, Beclin 1 and Autophagy

The present study investigates the anticancer effect of ascorbate in MIA-PaCa-2 human pancreatic cancer cells using both in vitro and in vivo models, with a focus on assessing the role of oxidative stress and autophagy as important mechanistic elements in its anticancer actions. We showed that ascorbate suppresses the growth of human pancreatic cancer cells via the induction of oxidative stress and caspase-independent cell death. Ascorbate induces the formation of autophagosomes and the presence of autophagy inhibitors suppresses ascorbate-induced cell death. These data suggest that the induction of autophagosome formation contributes to ascorbate-induced pancreatic cancer cell death.