June 17, 2008 -- An antioxidant found in red wine and grapes known as resveratrol -- already thought to help keep the heart healthy and ward off cancer -- may also turn out to be a fat fighter, according to new research.

In the laboratory, exposure to resveratrol prevented pre-fat cells, termed pre-adipocytes, from increasing and from converting into mature fat cells, according to Martin Wabitsch, MD, PhD, a researcher from the University of Ulm in Ulm, Germany. Wabitsch presented the findings this week at ENDO 08, The Endocrine Society's 90th annual meeting in San Francisco.

"We have to show it works in the same way in human beings," Wabitsch tells WebMD.

The hope, he says, is to continue the research and, if it bears out, develop drugs that will use the same mechanism as the resveratrol in controlling the fat cells.