Western blotting analysis revealed that incubation with 1 mM VPA for 24 h led to a significant increase in the expression and phosphorylation of HER3 protein (Figure 3B), as well as the phosporylated Akt in all three pancreatic cancer cell lines (Figure 3C), but not the phosphorylated Erk (Additional file 3: Figure S2). This evidence concerns the gene AKT1 and pancreatic neoplasm.