Effect of resveratrol in regulating proliferation and apoptosis of rectal cancer cells via up-regulating PTEN

Abstract

To analysis the relative expression of PTEN(phosphatase and tensin homology deleted on chromosome ten) in rectal cancer cell lines and the effects of resveratrol on cell proliferation and apoptosis of rectal cancer cells in vitro. Western blot was used to assess the protein expression of PTEN in rectal cancer cell lines and non-malignant colon epithelial cell line. After treating human rectal cancer cell line SW480 with different concentrations of resveratrol, the cellular proliferation was detected by cell counting Kit-8(CCK-8) assay. The apoptotic rate was analyzed by flow cytometry. The protein expressions of Caspase-3, PTEN, p53 and phosphorylase AKT(p-AKT) were detected by Western blot. shRNA(short hairpin RNA) was built to down-regulate PTEN expression in SW480 cells, and detect whether the own-regulated PTEN expression impact resveratrol's effect in growth inhibition and apoptosis induction of in vitro rectal cancer cells. Our results demonstrated that the relative level of PTEN was markedly decreased in Caco-2 and SW480, with statistically significant differences(P<0.001). Resveratrol inhibited the proliferation of rectal cancer cells markedly, and triggered apoptosis of SW480 cells. The protein expressions of Caspase-3, PTEN and p53 were all increased after being treated with resveratrol, while the expression of p-AKT was decreased after the treatment. The expression of endogenous PTEN was significantly decreased in shRNA PTEN-infected SW480 cells. Meanwhile, shRNA PTEN could obviously reduce SW480 cells' anti-proliferative and apoptotic effects. The experimental results suggested that resveratrol can be used as an anti-proliferative and apoptosis induction agent in rectal cancer through up-regulation of PTEN.