Grape seed extact provokes leukemia cell suicide!

I Must say, when I read about this, I knew my personal campaign for taking Resveratrol on a daily basis was validated!!

The January 1, 2009, issue of the American Association for Cancer Research journal Clinical Cancer Research published an article describing the discovery of Xianglin Shi, PhD and colleagues at the University of Kentucky of programmed cell death (apoptosis) in leukemia cells exposed to grape seed extract.

Grape seed extract has shown anticancer activity in studies using stomach, breast, colon, lung, skin and prostate cancer cell lines. "This is a natural compound that appears to have relatively important properties," noted Dr Shi, who is a professor at the University of Kentucky Graduate Center for Toxicology.

For the current research, the team administered varying concentrations of a commercially available grape seed extract to leukemia cell cultures. They found that higher doses of the extract resulted in 76 percent of the leukemia cells undergoing apoptosis within 24 hours following exposure, while healthy cells remained unharmed. Dr Shi's team determined that grape seed extract activates a protein known as JNK, which regulates apoptosis, leading to upregulation of Cip/p21, which controls the cell cycle. The scientists were able to confirm this mechanism through the use of a JNK inhibitor as well as by silencing the JNK gene, both of which rendered grape seed extract ineffective against the cancerous cells.

Very Good News Indeed! I do recommend drinking red wine for the resveratrol properties, but for a more potent and fuller effect, I have to say that a resveratrol supplement, such as the one offered by Life Extension, would be a more prudent approach. Seeing as one capsule is about equivalent to 100 glasses of wine, you can get the benefits and THEN some without being intoxicated at work all day. Really it's a win-win. =)

- JJM