Apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD regulates the growth of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase recruitment domain (ASC) is a key adaptor protein of inflammasomes but also a proapoptotic molecule. We clarified the role and mechanisms of ASC in vitro data based on PDAC cells. ASC expression in PDAC cells was downregulated using small-interfering (si)RNA, and gene expression was assessed by RNA sequencing. PDAC cells were further analyzed using a proliferation assay and cell cycle analysis. We observed high ASC expression in multiple PDAC cells, and downregulation of ASC resulted in inhibition of PDAC cell growth and altered expression of cell cycle-related genes. Downregulation of ASC inhibited tumor progression by modulating the cell cycle in PDAC cells. Overall design: mRNA profiles of PANC-1 cells after transfection with either control siRNA, ASC siRNA (1), or ASC siRNA (2) were generated by deep sequencing, in triplicate, using Illumina Miseq.