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.

Protective effects of green tea polyphenol extracts against ethanol-induced gastric mucosal damages in rats: stress-responsive transcription factors and MAP kinases as potential targets.

Lee JS, Oh TY, Kim YK, Baik JH, So S, Hahm KB, Surh YJ

College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, South Korea.

There are multiple lines of compelling evidence from epidemiologic and laboratory studies supporting that frequent consumption of green tea is inversely associated with the risk of chronic human diseases including cancer. The chemopreventive and chemoprotective effects of green tea have been largely attributed to antioxidative and anti-inflammatory activities of its polyphenolic constituents, such as epigallocatechin gallate. The present study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of green tea polyphenols in protecting against alcohol-induced gastric damage and to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Intragastric administration of ethanol to male Sprague-Dawley rats caused significant gastric mucosal damage, which was accompanied by elevated expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) as well as transient activation of redox-sensitive transcription factors, such as NF-kappaB and AP-1, and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs). Oral administration of the green tea polyphenolic extract (GTE) significantly ameliorated mucosal damages induced by ethanol and also attenuated the ethanol-induced expression of COX-2 and iNOS. Inactivation of MAPKs, especially p38 and ERKl/2, by GTE might be responsible for inhibition of ethanol-induced expression of COX-2 and iNOS.

Published 31 October 2005 in Mutat Res, 579(1): 214-24.
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