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Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved catabolic process involving the degradation of a cell's own components through the lysosomal machinery. It has been implicated in a form of programmed cell death distinct from apoptosis and is thought to be dysregulated in some cancers. We have previously demonstrated that resveratrol (3, 4, 5-trihydroxystilbene), a natural phytoalexin present in grapes and nuts, activates Notch signaling in human follicular thyroid cancer cells and is associated with significant growth inhibition of FTC. More recently, others have shown that resveratrol can induce autophagic cell death in several human cancers. In the present study, we sought to determine whether: 1) autophagy is activated in resveratrol-treated FTC cells, 2) autophagy is mediated by Notch activation, and 3) autophagy is responsible for Notch-mediated growth inhibition in human FTC cells. Human …