Resveratrol induced apoptosis and cell arrest in cancer cells

AIM: To study the mechanism of resveratrol induced HepG2 and K562 cells apoptosis and cell arrest. METHODS: Cell morphological method and Annexin V technology were used to detect HepG2 and K562 cells apoptosis, flow cytometry (FCM) was used to detect the cell cycle and MTT was used to detect the medicine sensitivity of HepG2 and K562 cells. RESULTS: Apoptosis was seen in human liver cancer HepG2 cell treated with resveratrol and nuclear chromatine condensation and fragmentation were observed in HepG2 cells. Typical ladder patterns of DNA fragmentation were also observed. The highest rate of HepG2 cell apoptosis was 33.7% by Annexin V. Cell cycle stopped at S phase and cell apoptosis rate was 9.97% by FCM. Time and dose dependent effects of resveratrol to HepG2 cell were detected by MTT. Resveratrol had no effect on K562 cells. CONCLUSION: Resveratrol induces HepG2 cell apoptosis and inhibits the development of human liver cancer with a time and dose dependent effect. The resveratrol-induced cell apoptosis is specific to cancer cells.