Green Tea Hp

Green tea is high in the antioxidant EGCG (epigallocatechin-3- gallate) which helps prevent the body’s cells from becoming damaged and prematurely aged. Studies have suggested that the combination of green tea and EGCG may also be beneficial by providing protection against certain types of cancers, including breast cancer. A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Mississippi researchers now finds that consuming EGCG significantly inhibits breast tumor growth in female mice.

These results bring us one step closer to better understanding the disease and potentially new and naturally occurring therapies.

The Study

Epidemiological studies suggest that green tea and its major constituent, EGCG, can provide some protection against cancer. Because these studies were very limited, the anti-cancer mechanism of green tea and EGCG was not clear. As a result, the researchers examined whether drinking EGCG (just the antioxidant infused in water) inhibited the following: expression of VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor, which is found in a variety of breast cancer types); tumor angiogenesis (thought to help tumors expand by supplying them with nutrients); and the growth of breast cancer in female mice.

Seven week old female mice were given EGCG (25 mg/50 ml) in drinking water for five weeks (approximately 50-100 mg/kg/day.) The control mice received regular drinking water. In the second week of the study mouse breast cancer cells were injected in the left fourth mammary glands of the mice. Tumor size was monitored by measuring the tumor cross section area (TCSA). Tumors were eventually isolated and measured for tumor weight, intratumoral microvessel (IM) density (using staining), and VEGF protein levels (using ELISA).

At the end of the five week period the researchers found that oral consumption of EGCG caused significant decreases in TCSA (66%), tumor weight (68%), IM density 155±6 vs.111±20 IM#mm^2) and VEGF protein levels (59.0±3.7 vs. 45.7±1.4 pg/mg) in the breast tumors vs. the control mice, respectively (N=8; P<0.01).  Further, VEGF plasma levels were lower in EGCG mice than in control mice (40.8±3.5 vs. 26.5±3.8 pg/ml P< 0.01).

The study was conducted by Jian-Wei Gu, Emily Young, Jordan Covington, James Wes Johnson, and Wei Tan, all of the Department of Physiology & Biophysics, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS. Dr. Gu will present his team’s findings, entitled, Oral Administration of EGCG, an Antioxidant Found in Green Tea, Inhibits Tumor Angiogenesis and Growth of Breast Cancer in Female Mice, at the  121st Annual Meeting of the American Physiological Society, part of the Experimental Biology 2008 scientific conference.

Dr. Gu, the senior researcher for the study, hypothesized that the reason for the link between EGCG and the reductions in the cancer data was because EGCG directly targets both tumor blood vessels and tumor cells of breast cancer for suppressing the new blood vessels formation in breast tumor, the proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells.

Gu concluded by saying, “In this study we have demonstrated that the frequent ingestion of EGCG significantly inhibits breast tumor growth, VEGF expression and tumor angiogenesis in mice. We believe our findings will help lead to new therapies for the prevention and treatment of breast cancer in women.”

A new study by the University of Michigan Health System (University of Michigan Health System), indicates that component, which is part of the green tea is useful for people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis.

Results of the study were presented to 29 – April at the conference “Experimental Biology 2007″ in Washington. The subject of study became anti properties component of green tea. Researchers found that epigallocatechine-3-gallat (EGCG) prevented production in the immune system molecules that are involved in the inflammatory process and harm the body in rheumatoid arthritis.

Furthermore, found that EGCG suppresses inflammation process in the connective tissue in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

“Our study provides a promising step in the search for therapeutic treatment of damaged joints in patients with rheumatoid arthritis”, – said Saladdin Ahmed, a leading specialist in the study. Ahmed, a researcher Division of Rheumatology at the University of Michigan, was asked to submit the results of a study at Experimental Biology conference, as Winner of Young Scientist Travel Award, established by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. The study also was published in the press release the American Society of Nutrition (American Society for Nutrition).

The scientists took cells that are called “synovial fibroblast”, the joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. They form the lining tissue surrounding the capsule joints. The cells were reproduced in the breeding environment and incubated together with a component of green tea.

Then fibroblasts have been processed by causing inflammation cytokines IL-1 β, protein the immune system, playing a central role in the destruction of joints in rheumatoid arthritis.

Researchers tested whether EGCG to block the impact of the two molecules, IL-6 and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), who is also actively involved in the erosion of bone joints in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

When raw EGCG cells were subjected to the impact of IL-1 β, at the molecular level changes that led to the production of molecules-destroyer bone. However, processed cells, as it turned out, managed to resist the emergence of such molecules. EGCG, moreover, was able to halt the production prostoglandina E2, hormone-like substances, causing susceptible to inflammation of joints.

Conductive ways of regulating the levels of these immune system molecules, in normal and rheumatoid situation well studied, and scientists managed to trace the effect EGCG.

Ahmed said that the study will help synthetically allocated from the EGCG molecule for therapeutic treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
Laboratory research is now occupied by blocking the role of EGCG in gene expression. Scientists plan to test EGCG on animals with rheumatoid arthritis. These tests will become a base for research on human beings.