Intracellular free zinc mediates compressive stress-induced mechanotransduction in pancreatic cancer

In this study, Nihei et al. show that unknown function of the intracellular free zinc in mechanical compressive stress-induced signaling and altered gene expression in pancreatic cancer cells, provide novel perspectives on zinc as a signal transducer and therapeutic target. We explored the roles of compressive stress in pancreatic cancer progression by investigating the changes in gene expression induced by it using microarray. We performed microarray analysis on the AsPC-1 cells that were either uncompressed or subjected to compressive stress of 2.9 mmHg (compressed) for 24 h. After compression or uncompression, RNA were extracted. Gene expression profiling with the GeneChip Human Gene 2.0 ST expression array.