Constitutive NF-κB activation is among the many deregulated signaling pathways that are proposed to drive pancreatic cancer cell growth and survival. Recent reports suggest that glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) plays a key role in maintaining basal NF-κB target gene expression and cell survival in pancreatic cancer cell lines. However, the mechanism by which GSK-3β facilitates constitutive NF-κB signaling in pancreatic cancer remains unclear. In this report, we analyze the contributions of both GSK-3 isoforms (GSK-3α, GSK-3β) in regulating NF-κB activation and cell proliferation in pancreatic cancer cell lines (Panc-1 and MiaPaCa-2). We demonstrate that GSK-3 isoforms are differentially required to maintain basal NF-κB DNA binding activity, transcriptional activity, and cell proliferation in Panc-1 and MiaPaCa-2 cells. Our data also indicate that IKK subunits are not equally required to regulate pancreatic cancer-associated NF-κB activity and cell growth. Importantly, we provide the first evidence that GSK-3 maintains constitutive NF-κB signaling in pancreatic cancer by regulating IKK activity. These data provide new insight into GSK-3-dependent NF-κB regulation, and further establishes GSK-3 and IKK as potential therapeutic targets for pancreatic cancer
