In the Laboratory, Resveratrol Blocks Estrogen’s Beneficial Effects on Vascular Smooth Muscle

Researchers have shown that Resveratrol, in low concentrations similar to those attained with red wine consumption, actually impairs estrogen’s beneficial effects on vascular smooth muscle growth in the laboratory.

Background

One of estrogen’s beneficial actions in the body is thought to be its inhibition of the smooth muscle cell growth that occurs at the sight of vascular injury – cell growth that leads to atherosclerotic plaque formation.

Resveratrol is the substance that has been hypothesized to mediate the protective effect of red wine against heart disease. Resveratrol is said to inhibit platelet clumping, another critical step in plaque formation, as well as to have antioxidative effects.

But resveratrol also has anti-estrogenic activity and  blocks estradiol metabolism.  How might this mitigate its putative protective effects?

What they did

The researchers  grew vascular smooth muscle cells in the lab, then added both resveratrol and estrogen at levels simlar to those attained in the human body. They found that resveratrol blocked estrogen’s growth-slowing effect on the vascular cells.

These considerations imply that moderate consumption of wine or resveratrol-containing health supplements (20–500 mg) by premenopausal women or postmenopausal women on estradiol could attenuate the inhibitory effects of estradiol on VSMC growth and abrogate the vasoprotective actions of estradiol.

Interestingly, when the resarchers upped the dose of resveratrol to supraphysiolgic levels that are unattainable in the human body, they were able to override the effect on estrogen and get inhibition of growth. They tell us that it is at these unattainable levels that much of the research showing resveratrol’s protective effects on heart disease has been conducted.

Bottom Line

The effects of resveratrol are complex, have been shown only in the lab, mostly in rats at levels unattainable in humans, and may not be as beneficial as you think.

Enjoy your wine if you want, but in moderation and without expectation other than a nice palate and a little buzz. A healthy diet, a healthy weight and exercise remain the mainstays of heart disease prevention.

Could this be why we get hot flashes from red wine?

Still, it makes me wonder….

If this effect of resveratrol is real, then maybe Mother Nature is trying to keep us away from the stuff that might mitigate what little our remaining estrogen might be doing for our hearts.

Just a thought…

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UPDATE – GSK has halted research on use of a resveratrol related compound for treatment of multiple myleoma after subjects in the trial developed kidney failure.