Vitamin B6 inhibits the growth of human pancreatic carcinoma

Vitamin 136 serves as a coenzyme and is essential for the metabolism of amino acids. The human pancreatic carcinoma cell line PANC-1 was treated with pyridoxine (at concentrations of 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 mM) or pyridoxal (0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.5 mM). The viable cell count was determined daily for six days using the MTT assay. The experiment was repeated three times. Each control and each concentration tested was performed in triplicate. All comparisons were analyzed by ANOVA with Tukey HSD. At doses of 2.5 mM and higher, PN significantly inhibited the growth in a dose-dependent manner (p < 0.05). Treatment with PL (0.5, 1.0 and 2.5 mM) significantly inhibited growth from the second day (p < 0.05). We have demonstrated the inhibitory effect of PL and PN on a human pancreatic cancer cell line. Further studies are needed to assess the impact of megadose vitamin treatment in vivo. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.