Green Tea Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Green Tea, including details on benefits, antioxidants, weight loss, diet, side effects.

(-)-Epigallocatechin gallate inhibits lipopolysaccharide-induced microglial activation and protects against inflammation-mediated dopaminergic neuronal injury.

Li R, Huang YG, Fang D, Le WD

Health Science Center, Shanghai Institute for Biological Science, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai Second Medical University, Shanghai, Peoples Republic of China.

Microglial activation is believed to play a pivotal role in the selective neuronal injury associated with several neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease. We provide evidence that (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a major monomer of green tea polyphenols, potently inhibits lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated microglial secretion of nitric oxide (NO) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) through the down-regulation of inducible NO synthase and TNF-alpha expression. In addition, EGCG exerted significant protection against microglial activation-induced neuronal injury both in the human dopaminergic cell line SH-SY5Y and in primary rat mesencephalic cultures. Our study demonstrates that EGCG is a potent inhibitor of microglial activation and thus is a useful candidate for a therapeutic approach to alleviating microglia-mediated dopaminergic neuronal injury in PD.

Published 30 November 2004 in J Neurosci Res, 78(5): 723-31.
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