Antitumoural activity of viniferin-enriched extracts from Vitis vinifera L. cell cultures.

The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of stilbenes from different cultivars ofVitis viniferaon tumour proliferation. Extracts were obtained from elicitedV. viniferacell cultures and characterised by HPLC/DAD/MS. Cell growth was evaluated in four human cancer cell lines and in normal human fibroblasts. The cells were exposed to the extracts or totrans-resveratrol, used as reference molecule, for 48 h, at 1–10 μM concentrations of total stilbenoids. All the extracts exhibited antiproliferative activity, mediated by modulation of the cell cycle and induction of cytotoxicity in cancer but not in normal cell lines, and positively correlated with the content in dimeric stilbenoids. The Alphonse Lavallée extract was the most active, and the obtained stilbenoid fraction resulted 8–10 times more active thantrans-resveratrol. Extracts fromV. viniferacell cultures could represent new sources of active stilbenoid compounds to be further assayed inin vivostudies for their antitumoural properties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]