Shikonin promotes autophagy in BXPC-3 human pancreatic cancer cells through the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of shikonin on autophagy in BXPC-3 human pancreatic cancer cells and its underlying mechanism. Cell viability was assessed using the Cell Counting Kit-8 assay and the expression of light chain (LC) 3, p62, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), Akt, phosphorylated (p)-PI3K and p-Akt was analyzed using western blot analysis. Following treatment with 1 mu mol/l shikonin for 48 h and 2.5 and 5 mu mol/l shikonin for 24 and 48 h, the viability of the BXPC-3 cells was found to be significantly reduced and the protein expression of LC3-II/LC3-I was observed to be increased, while the protein expression of p62, PI3K, Akt, p-PI3K and p-Akt was decreased. These findings suggest that shikonin promotes autophagy in BXPC-3 cells and that the underlying mechanism may be associated with the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.