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Protective effect of green tea polyphenols on the SH-SY5Y cells against 6-OHDA induced apoptosis through ROS-NO pathway.

Guo S, Bezard E, Zhao B

Laboratory of Visual Information processing, Center of Brain & Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Academia Sinica, Beijing 100101, People's Republic of China.

Green tea polyphenols (GTP) are thought to help prevent oxidative stress-related diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease, and aging. We here investigate the protective mechanisms of GTP on SH-SY5Y cells against apoptosis induced by the pro-parkinsonian neurotoxin 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA). GTP rescued the changes in condensed nuclear and apoptotic bodies, attenuated 6-OHDA-induced early apoptosis, prevented the decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential, and suppressed accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and of intracellular free Ca(2+). GTP also counteracted the 6-OHDA-induced nitric oxide increase and overexpression of nNOS and iNOS, and decreased the level of protein-bound 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT). In addition, GTP inhibited the autooxidation of 6-OHDA and scavenged oxygen free radicals in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Our results show that the protective effects of GTP on SH-SY5Y cells are mediated, at least in part, by controlling the ROS-NO pathway.

Published 8 August 2005 in Free Radic Biol Med, 39(5): 682-95.
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