Resveratrol inhibits cell growth in a human cholangiocarcinoma cell line.

Background/aims: Cholangiocarcinoma is a devastating tumour with a poor prognosis. An efficient therapy is unavailable in unoperable patients and new drugs are widely sought for and required. Resveratrol (RES) is a natural molecule with a reported anticancer effect, evaluated on different tumour cell lines. We tested the efficacy of RES on a cholangiocarcinoma cell line for the first time.

Methods: We used the human SK-ChA-1 cell line, cultured in the classical two-dimensional model and in the three-dimensional spheroids. After RES exposure morphology, cell viability (colony-forming assay), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and cancer antigen (CA) 19-9 medium releases, cellular transglutaminase activity, karyotype and cell cycle were evaluated.

Results: Resveratrol inhibited cell growth in both the cell culture systems used (from -15 to -80% vs untreated controls) and induced a 40-fold increase of LDH and ALP activities in the culture medium. Also, transglutaminase (TG) activity increased in the cell lysates, together with a cell cycle perturbation characterised by an accumulation in the G(1)/S phase. Karyotype and CA 19-9 expression were not influenced by the treatment.

Conclusions: The observed cytotoxic effect of RES on the human cholangiocarcinoma SK-ChA-1 cell line cultured two- and three-dimensionally suggests to further analyse its chemotherapic/chemopreventive possibilities for this kind of cancer.