Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 23 pp 25089—25105

Figure 4. Puerarin inhibits the activation of Akt/mTOR signaling in vitro and in vivo. (A) The correlation between the expression of Akt and the activity of KRAS, TP53, CDKN2A, and SMAD4 in the GEPIA 2 database was evaluated. (B) The correlation between the expression of mTOR and the activity of KRAS, TP53, CDKN2A, and SMAD4 in the GEPIA 2 database was evaluated. (C) The expression and phosphorylation of mTOR in normal pancreatic ductal cells (HPDE6-C7) and PCCs (PANC-1, PATU-8988T, and BxPc-3). (D, E) Western blot analysis showing the expression and phosphorylation of Akt and mTOR in PDACs with or without puerarin treatment. (F, G) Immunocytochemical staining of mTOR in PDACs. Bar = 50 μm. (H) Western blot analysis showing the expression and phosphorylation of Akt and mTOR in the puerarin-treated animal xenograft model. (I) IHC staining for mTOR in the puerarin-treated model. Bar = 50 μm. The data are presented as the mean ± standard deviation and were analyzed by one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s post-hoc test and two-sided Student’s t-test. ^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01, and ^***p < 0.001.