Skip to main content
PMC home page
Cytotechnology logoLink to Cytotechnology
. 1999 Sep;31(1-2):37–44. doi: 10.1023/A:1008076306672

Effects of green, oolong and black teas and related components on the proliferation and invasion of hepatoma cells in culture

Guoying Zhang, Yutaka Miura, Kazumi Yagasaki
PMCID: PMC3449775  PMID: 19003122

Abstract

The effects of teas and related components on the proliferation and invasion of cancer cells were examined by employing both in vitro proliferation and invasion assay systems. Powdered green, oolong and black tea extracts dose-dependently inhibited proliferation and invasion of a rat ascites hepatoma cell line of AH109A but did not affect the proliferation of the normal mesentery-derived mesothelial cells (M-cells) isolated from rats; higher concentrations of powdered oolong and black teas could restrain the proliferation of another tumor cell line of L929. The AH109A cells were found to penetrate underneath the monolayer of M-cells in the presence of 10% calf serum. When each rat serum obtained at 0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 5 h after oral intubation of each tea extract was added to the culture media instead of calf serum at a concentration of 10%, both the invasion and proliferation of AH109A were significantly suppressed. These ex vivo results suggest the potential bioavailability of effective tea components in rats. Furthermore, (–)-epigallocatechin gallate, (–)-epicatechin gallate and (–)-epigallocatechin from green tea as well as the mixture of theaflavin and theaflavin gallates from black tea were shown to be the most effective components against the invasion and proliferation of AH109A. These results show that the inhibitory effects of the teas and related components against AH109A cells are due to the cell-specific and higher sensitivity of the cell line to tea components.

Keywords: catechins, hepatoma cells, invasion, proliferation, teas

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (144.9 KB).

References

  1. Agarwal R, Katiyar SK, Zaidi SIA, Mukhtar H. Inhibition of skin tumor promoter-caused induction of epidermal ornithine decarboxylase in SENCAR mice by polyphenolic fraction isolated from green tea and its individual epicatechin derivatives. Cancer Res. 1992;52:3582–3588. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Fourneau C, Laurens A, Hocquemiller R, Cave A. Radical scavening evaluation of green tea extracts. Phytotherapy Res. 1996;10:529–530. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1573(199609)10:6<529::AID-PTR887>3.0.CO;2-F. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  3. Hirose M, Hoshiya T, Akagi K, Takahashi S, Hara Y, Ito N. Effects of green tea catechins in a rat multi-organ carcinogenesis model. Carcinogenesis. 1993;14:1549–1553. doi: 10.1093/carcin/14.8.1549. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Ishiyama M, Shiga M, Sasamoto K, Mizoguchi M, He PG. A new sulfonated tetrazolium salt that produces a highly water-soluble formazan dye. Chem Pharm Bull. 1993;41:1118–1122. [Google Scholar]
  5. Ishiyama M, Tominaga H, Shiga M, Sasamoto K, Ohkura Y, Ueno K. A combined assay of cell viability and in vitro cytotoxicity with a highly water-soluble tetrazolium salt, neutral red and crystal violet. Biol Pharm Bull. 1996;41:1118–1122. doi: 10.1248/bpb.19.1518. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Komatsu K, Yagasaki K, Miura Y, Funabiki R. Modification of tumor necrosis factor and interleukin-1 productivity in macrophages from hepatoma-bearing rats by dietary proteins. Nutr Res. 1996;10:1699–1707. doi: 10.1016/0271-5317(96)00189-3. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  7. Lee MJ, Wang ZY, Li H, Chen LS, Sun Y, Gobbo S, Balentine DA, Yang CS. Analysis of plasma and urinary tea polyphenols in human subjects. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev. 1995;4:393–399. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Liu X-H, Connolly JM, Rose DP. Eicosanoids as mediator of linoleic acid-stimulated invasion and type IV collagenase production by a metastatic human breast cancer cell line. Clin Exp Metastasis. 1996;14:145–152. doi: 10.1007/BF00121211. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Mitsui T, Yamada K, Yamashita K, Matsuo N, Okuda A, Kimura G, Sugano M. E1A-3Y1 cell-specific toxicity of tea polyphenols and their killing mechanism. Int J Oncology. 1995;6:377–383. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Miura Y, Shiomi H, Sakai F, Yagasaki K. Assay systems for screening food components that have anti-proliferative and anti-invasive activity to rat ascites hepatoma cells: In vitro and ex vivo effects of green tea extract. Cytotechnology. 1997;23:127–132. doi: 10.1023/A:1007951231617. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Mukai M, Shinkai K, Tateishi R, Mori Y, Akedo H. Macrophage potentiation of invasive capacity of rat ascites hepatoma cells. Cancer Res. 1987;47:2167–2171. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Namiki M, Osawa T. Antioxidants/antimutagens in food. Basic Life Sci. 1986;39:131–142. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4684-5182-5_11. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Nanjo F, Goto K, Seto R, Suzuki M, Sakai M, Hara Y. Scavenging effects of tea catechins and their derivatives on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical. Free Radical Biol Med. 1996;21:895–902. doi: 10.1016/0891-5849(96)00237-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Nishida H, Omori M, Fukutomi Y, Ninomiya M, Nishiwaki S, Suganuma M, Moriwaki H, Muto Y. Inhibitory effects of (−)-epigallocatechin gallate on spontaneous hepatoma in C3H/NeNCrj mice and human hepatoma-derived PLC/PRF/5 cells. Jpn J Cancer Res. 1994;85:221–225. doi: 10.1111/j.1349-7006.1994.tb02085.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Okabe S, Suganuma M, Hayashi M, Sueoka E, Komori A, Fujiki H. Mechanisms of growth inhibition of human lung cancer cell line, PC-9, by tea polyphenols. Jpn J Cancer Res. 1997;88:639–643. doi: 10.1111/j.1349-7006.1997.tb00431.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Okuda T, Kimura Y, Yoshida T, Hatano T, Okuda H, Arichi S. Studies on the activities of tannins and related compounds from medical plants and drugs. I. Inhibitory effects on lipid peroxidation in mitochondria and microsomes of liver. Chem Pharm Bull. 1983;31:1625–1631. doi: 10.1248/cpb.31.1625. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Reich R, Martin GR. Identification of arachidonic acid pathways required for the invasive and metastatic activity of malignant tumor cells. Prostaglandins. 1996;51:1–17. doi: 10.1016/0090-6980(95)00154-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Salah N, Miller NJ, Paganga G, Tijburg L, Bolwell GP, Rice-Evans C. Polyphenolic flavanols as scavengers of aqueous phase radicals and as chain-breaking antioxidants. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1995;322:339–346. doi: 10.1006/abbi.1995.1473. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Sazuka M, Murakami S, Isemura M, Satoh K, Nukiwa T. Inhibitory effects of green tea infusion on in vitro invasion and in vivo metastasis of mouse lung carcinoma cells. Cancer Lett. 1995;98:27–31. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Shinkai K, Mukai M, Akedo H. Superoxide radical potentiates invasive capacity of rat ascites hepatoma cells in vitro. Cancer Lett. 1986;32:7–13. doi: 10.1016/0304-3835(86)90033-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Taniguchi S, Fujiki H, Kobayashi H, Go H, Miyado K, Sadano H, Shimokawa R. Effect of (−)-epigallocatechin gallate, the main constituent of green tea, on lung metastasis with mouse B16 melanoma cell line. Cancer Lett. 1992;65:51–54. doi: 10.1016/0304-3835(92)90212-E. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Valcic S, Timmermann BN, Alberts DS, Wachter GA, Krutzsch M, Wymer J, Guillen JM. Inhibitory effect of six green tea catechins and caffeine on the growth of four selected human tumor cell lines. Anti-Cancer Drugs. 1996;7:461–468. doi: 10.1097/00001813-199606000-00011. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Wang ZY, Hong JY, Huang MT, Reuhl K, Conney AH, Yang CS. Inhibition of N-nitroso-diethylamine and 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone-induced tumorigenesis in A/J mice by green tea and black tea. Cancer Res. 1992;52:1943–1947. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Wang ZY, Agarwa R, Khan WA, Mukhtarl H. Protection against N-nitrosodiethylamine and benzo(a)pyrene-induced forestomach and lung tumorigenesis in A/J mice by water extracts of green tea and licorice. Carcinogenesis. 1992;13:1491–1493. doi: 10.1093/carcin/13.8.1491. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Cytotechnology are provided here courtesy of Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

RESOURCES