Effect of ground green tea drinking for 2 weeks on the susceptibility of plasma and LDL to the oxidation ex vivo in healthy volunteers.

Catechins in green tea have been shown to reduce a risk of coronary heart disease in epidemiological studies. Also, it has been reported catechins have hypolipidemic and antioxidant effects. Then, we investigated the effects of ground green tea drinking on the susceptibility of plasma and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) to the oxidation by CuSO4 ex vivo, and also evaluated daily food consumption using semiquantitative questionnaire. Five healthy female subjects consumed ground green tea (1.5 g/3 times/day) for 2 weeks after a washout period of 1 week, when they drank water instead of tea. After 2-week tea drinking, the subjects drank water again. They also filled food and drink-frequency questionnaires during 4 weeks to assess daily foods consumption to estimate the oxidizability of plasma and LDL. We measured the lag time of conjugated dienes formation of plasma and LDL to oxidation by CuSO4. The lag time of conjugated dienes formation are increased in all subjects after ground green tea consumption from 67+/-19 to 118+/-42 min in plasma and from 47+/-6 to 66+/-10 min in LDL. The cholesterol contents in plasma and LDL decreased 10 mg/dl after ground green tea consumption. The beta-carotene, alpha-tocopherol, vitamin C and uric acid contents in plasma did not change after ground green tea consumption. The superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in plasma also remained unchanged during this study periods. These findings indicated that ground green tea consumption decreased susceptibility of plasma and LDL to oxidation and also modulated cholesterol metabolism and might prevent initiation and progression of atherosclerosis.