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.

A component of green tea, (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate, promotes apoptosis in T24 human bladder cancer cells via modulation of the PI3K/Akt pathway and Bcl-2 family proteins.

Qin J, Xie LP, Zheng XY, Wang YB, Bai Y, Shen HF, Li LC, Dahiya R

Department of Urology, First Affiliated Hospital, Medical College, Zhejiang University, Qingchun Road 79, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China.

Bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer in men and ninth most common in women. It has a protracted course of progression and is thus an ideal candidate for chemoprevention strategies and trials. This study was conducted to evaluate the chemopreventive/antiproliferative potential of (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG, the major phytochemical in green tea) against bladder cancer and its mechanism of action. Using the T24 human bladder cancer cell line, we found that EGCG treatment caused dose- and time-dependent inhibition of cellular proliferation and cell viability, and induced apoptosis. Mechanistically, EGCG inhibits phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase/Akt activation that, in turn, results in modulation of Bcl-2 family proteins, leading to enhanced apoptosis of T24 cells. These findings suggest that EGCG may be an important chemoprevention agent for the management of bladder cancer.

Published 13 February 2007 in Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 354(4): 852-7.
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