Resveratrol Fails to Extend Life Span in the Mosquito Anopheles stephensi

Resveratrol, a plant polyphenol present in grape skins, has been theorized to account for the "French Paradox" by explaining how red wine may decrease the health risks associated with unhealthy diets. Resveratrol has been reported to extend life span in several different species. Other studies, however, have failed to find a resveratrol-induced life span effect. A recent meta-study analyzing previously published survival data concluded that, although resveratrol reliably and reproducibly extends life span in some species, its life span effects show diminished reliability in other organisms. The data are mixed, and it remains unclear how evolutionarily conserved resveratrol's effects on life span are. To gain further insight into this controversy, we studied the effects of various concentrations (200 μM, 100 μM, 50 μM, or 0 μM) of orally fed resveratrol on the life span of the mosquito Anopheles stephensi, an important vector of human malaria, under two different feeding treatments--sugar-fed only or sugar-fed with intermittent blood meals. Each treatment was repeated three times and both survivorship and mortality rates were analyzed for each replicate. For the majority of experiments, resveratrol failed to mediate a statistically significant effect on life span. Although there was one instance where resveratrol significantly increased life span, there were five other instances where resveratrol significantly decreased life span. We conclude from these data that, under normal conditions, resveratrol does not extend life span in A. stephensi.