Journal: Cell Death Discovery
Article Title: Epigenetic context defines the transcriptional activity of canonical and noncanonical NF-κB signaling in pancreatic cancer
doi: 10.1038/s41420-026-03019-9
Figure Lengend Snippet: A Western blot analysis of p105/p50, p100/p52, phospho-RELA, and RELB following TNFα and TWEAK treatments across multiple time points (0–30 min and 1–72 h). Representative of n = 3 independent experiments. B Heatmap of differentially expressed genes following RNA-seq analysis of L3.6pl cells treated with TNFα and TWEAK for 6 and 48 hours. Unbiased clustering analysis was performed after differential expression with DESeq2. One TNFα-treated replicate (replicate 1) was excluded due to low read depth and outlier behavior in PCA and z-score heatmap analyses, which indicated a sequencing error. C Venn diagram displaying the number of TNFα-specific, TWEAK-specific, and commonly differentially expressed genes (DEGs), derived from DESeq2 analysis and unbiased clustering analysis. Selections were based on Log2FC ≥ 1, FDR ≤ 0.05, and base mean ≥ 10. D Pathway analysis for biological processes (GO) and KEGG of TNFα-specific (top) and common genes (bottom) identified in ( C ). The top pathways were selected based on FDR values. E Caspase 3/7 activity in L3.6pl and AsPC-1 cells over 72 h following treatment with TNFα (10 ng/ml), TWEAK (10 ng/ml), and cycloheximide (CHX; 10 µM) as indicated. Values represent total green integrated intensity (normalized to vehicle control and cell number at each time point). Area under the curve (AUC) was calculated for each condition, and p -values were determined using unpaired t -tests based on AUC values. n.s. = not significant. F Single-cell migration tracking assay captured every 15 min over 48 h in AsPC-1 and L3.6pl cells using IncuCyte live-cell imaging (10× magnification). Boxplots depict the mean instantaneous speed calculated from migrated tracks for AsPC-1 and L3.6pl cells following vehicle, TNFα, and TWEAK treatments ( p -value: one-way ANOVA; Dunnett’s multiple comparisons relative to vehicle control). G Scatter plot of normalized expression levels of TNFα and TWEAK (log scale) in 173 PDAC patient samples from TCGA. Each dot represents an individual sample. Based on TNFα and TWEAK expression thresholds (TNFα ≥ 100 and TWEAK < 1300), samples were classified as TNFα high (red), TWEAK high (blue; TNFα < 100 and TWEAK ≥ 1300), TNFα/TWEAK low (purple; TNFα < 60 and TWEAK < 700 or not assigned (black). H Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) results for TNFα-specific ( n = 310) and common (n = 626; 575 common genes + 51 TWEAK-specific genes) gene sets in the TNFα high , TWEAK high , and TNFα/TWEAK low expression from TCGA data. Normalized Enrichment Scores (NES) and False Discovery Rate (FDR) values are shown in each plot. TNFα high samples show significant enrichment of both TNFα-specific and common gene sets, whereas TWEAK high samples only display enrichment of the TNFα-specific gene set. I Boxplots showing expression of selected genes from TNFα-specific and common gene sets in PDAC samples grouped by TNFα high , TWEAK high , and TNFα/TWEAK low status. Genes were selected based on their rankings from the GSEA analysis. TNFα-specific genes (top panels) show higher expression in TNFα high samples, while common genes (bottom panels) are elevated in both TNFα high and TWEAK high samples. p -values are shown for significant differences (unpaired t-tests).
Article Snippet: The following primary antibodies were used at the indicated dilutions: phospho-NFκB p65 (S536) (93H1) (phospho-RELA; 1:1000; Cell Signaling Technology; 3033; RRID:AB_331284), RELB (D7D7W) (1:1000; Cell Signaling Technology; 10544; RRID:AB_2797727), NF-κB2 p100/p52 (18D10) (1:1000; Cell Signaling Technology; 3017; RRID:AB_10697356), NF-κB1 p105/p50 (D4P4D) (1:1000; Cell Signaling Technology; 13586; RRID:AB_2665516), and β-Actin (D6A8) (1:1000; Cell Signaling Technology; 8457; RRID:AB_10950489).
Techniques: Western Blot, RNA Sequencing, Quantitative Proteomics, Sequencing, Derivative Assay, Activity Assay, Control, Single Cell, Migration, Live Cell Imaging, Expressing