Objective: To explore the reversal effect and potential mechanism of resveratrol on multidrug resistance of human oral epidermoid carcinoma KBv200 cells.
Methods: MTT assay was used to investigate reversal index of resveratrol to vincristine, adriamycin and paclitaxel. Cell apoptosis were measured by flow cytometry. RT-PCR and Western blot were used to detect mRNA and protein expression of multidrug resistant 1 (MDR1) and B cell lymphoma leukemia-2 (Bcl-2).
Results: Resveratrol produced a synergistic effect with chemotherapeutics and obviously reversed the multidrug resistant phenotype of KBv200 cells. The reversal fold (RF) of 200 micromol/L resveratrol to vincristine, paclitaxel and adriamycin were 77.1, 61.3 and 5.9, respectively. The gene array results showed that resveratrol greatly downregulated expression levels of Bcl-2 and MDR1. After treated with 100 micromol/L, 200 micromol/L resveratrol, the expression level of Bcl-2 and MDR1 in KBv200 cells were markedly decreased in comparison with those untreated (t were 2.98, 3.51 and 3.12, 4.56, P < 0.05).
Conclusions: Resveratrol can efficiently reverse multidrug resistance in KBv200 cells. The potential mechanism may be via inhibiting the multidrug resistant gene expressions and/or promoting cell apoptosis.