Antiproliferative and Cytotoxic Effects of Resveratrol in Mitochondria-Mediated Apoptosis in Rat B103 Neuroblastoma Cells

Resveratrol, a natural compound, has been shown to possess anti-cancer, anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and neuroprotective activities. In this study, we examined the antiproliferative and cytotoxicity properties of resveratrol in Rat B103 neuroblastoma cells; although it's molecular mechanisms for the biological effects are not fully defined. Here, we examined the cellular cytotoxicity of resveratrol by cell viability assay, antiproliferation by BrdU assay, DNA fragmentation by DNA ladder assay, activation of caspases and Bcl-2 family proteins were detected by western blot analyses. The results of our investigation suggest that resveratrol increased cellular cytotoxicity of Rat B103 neuroblastoma cells in a dose-and time-dependent manner with IC50 of 17.86 mu M at 48 h. On the other hand, incubation of neuroblastoma cells with resveratrol resulted in S-phase cell cycle arrests which dose-dependently and significantly reduced BrdU positive cells through the downregulation of cyclin D1 protein. In addition, resveratrol dose-dependently and significantly downregulated the expression of anti-apoptotic protein includes Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and Mcl-1 and also activates cleavage caspase-9 and-3 via the downregulation of procaspase-9 and -3 in a dose-dependent manner which indicates that involvement of intrinsic mitochondria-mediated apoptotic pathway. In conclusion, resveratrol increases cellular cytotoxicity and inhibits the proliferation of B103 neuroblastoma cells by inducing mitochondria-mediated intrinsic caspase dependent pathway which suggests this natural compound could be used as therapeutic purposes for neuroblastoma malignancies.