Abstract: Objective To study the effect of penta-O-galloyl-β-D-glucose (β-PGG) on the glycolysis and growth of human pancreatic cancer cells. Methods MiaPaCa-2 human pancreatic cancer cells were treated with different concentrations of β-PGG. The proliferation of MiaPaCa-2 was assessed by CCK8 method. Cytochemical kit was used to determine the product of glycolysis, lactate. Hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1), the glycolytic enzymes of hexokinase Ⅱ (HK - Ⅱ) and phosphofructokinase (PFK) were determined by Western blot assay.Results The results of CCK8 assay showed that β-PGG inhibited the proliferation of pancreatic cancer MiaPaCa-2 cells in a dose - and time-dependent manner (P＜0.05). β - PGG also inhibited the production of lactate in both normoxic and hypoxia conditions (P＜0.05). Compared with the control group, β-PGG inhibited the expression of HIF-1α, GLUT1, HK-Ⅱ and PFK. And the inhibitory effect increased with the increased concentration of β-PGG (P＜0.05). Conclusion β-PGG can inhibit the glycolysis pathway of human pancreatic cancer cell line MiaPaCa-2 and also inhibit the proliferation of MiaPaCa-2 cells. The inhibition may be achieved by inhibiting the expressions of HIF-1α, GLUT1, HK-Ⅱ and PFK in cancer cells.

Key words: pancreatic neoplasms, tumor cells, cultured, hypoxia-inducible factor 1, alpha subunit, glycolysis, lactic acid, cell proliferation, β-PGG