Resveratrol Exerts Differential Effects in Vitro and in Vivo against Ovarian Cancer Cells

Epithelial ovarian cancer represents the most lethal gynecological cancer, and the high mortality rate makesthis malignancy a major health concern. Poor prognosis results from an inability to detect ovarian cancers atan early, curable stage, as well as from the lack of an effective therapy. Thus, effective and novel strategies forprevention and treatment with non-toxic agents merit serious consideration. Resveratrol, obtained from grapes,berries, peanuts and red wine, has been shown to have a potent growth-inhibitory effect against various humancancer cells as well as in in vivo preclinical cancer models. The objective here was to evaluate potential antitumoreffects of resveratrol in both in vitro and in vivo NuTu-19 ovarian cancer models. In vitro an invasion assay wasperformed. After 48 h, the numbers of viable cells that invaded the extracellular matrix layer were reduced by94% with resveratrol in comparison to control. For the in vivo anti-tumor assessment, 10 rats were injected withNuTu-19 cells into the ovarian bursa. Thereafter, half were provided with a diet mixed with a dose of 100 mgresveratrol/kg body weight/day for 28 days. Following sacrifice, anticancer effects were assessed by histologicalevaluation of ovarian as well as surrounding tissues, and immunohistochemical detection of cell proliferationand apoptosis, but there were no observable differences between the control and resveratrol-treated groupsfor any of the biological endpoints. While resveratrol is effective in suppressing the in vitro cellular invasion ofNuTu-19 ovarian cancer cells, these effects do not appear to impact on in vivo NuTu-19 ovarian cancers in rats.