Abstract
We investigated the effects of extracts of Benifuuki (a tea cultivar that contains methylated catechins such as epigallocatechin-3-O-(3-O-methyl) gallate (EGCG3”Me)) in mice fed a high-fat/high-sucrose (HF/HS) diet. This tea cultivar was then compared with an extract of Yabukita (a popular tea cultivar that lacks methylated catechins). For 6 weeks, C57BL/6J mice were fed either HF/HS diet with or without tea extracts from tea cultivars, which contained almost identical ingredients except for methylated catechins (i.e., Yabukita (0.2% and 1%) or Benifuuki (0.2% and 1%) extract powders). Supplementation with Benifuuki 0.2% markedly lowered plasma levels of TG and NEFAs compared with mice supplemented with Yabukita 0.2%. The diet containing Benifuuki 1% decreased adipose tissue weights, liver TG, and expression of lipogenic genes in the liver. These results suggested that Benifuuki had much greater lipid-lowering effects than Yabukita. Taken together, these data suggest that methylated catechins direct the strong lipid-lowering activity of Benifuuki.
Highlights
We investigated the effects of extracts of Benifuuki (a tea cultivar that contains methylated catechins such as epigallocatechin-3-O-(3-O-methyl) gallate (EGCG3’’Me)) in mice fed a high-fat/high-sucrose (HF/HS) diet
Benifuuki is rich in methylated catechins such as epigallocatechin-3-O-(3-O-methyl) gallate (EGCG3’’Me; < 0.8–2.5% (w/ w)), which is not present in Yabukita cultivar, the most popular green tea, which accounts for about 75% of greentea products consumed in Japan
Dietary HF/HS is a strong inducer of SREBP1-c, fatty acid synthase (FAS), stearoylCoA desaturase1 (SCD1), and other enzymes regulating hepatic lipogenesis, and produces a pronounced elevation of hepatic TG concentrations with an increase in plasma TG24–29
Summary
We investigated the effects of extracts of Benifuuki (a tea cultivar that contains methylated catechins such as epigallocatechin-3-O-(3-O-methyl) gallate (EGCG3’’Me)) in mice fed a high-fat/high-sucrose (HF/HS) diet. This tea cultivar was compared with an extract of Yabukita (a popular tea cultivar that lacks methylated catechins). The diet containing Benifuuki 1% decreased adipose tissue weights, liver TG, and expression of lipogenic genes in the liver These results suggested that Benifuuki had much greater lipid-lowering effects than Yabukita. The amount of EGCG3’’Me in Benifuuki tea is about one-quarter that of EGCG, the blood concentrations of these two catechins after ingestion of Benifuuki tea are almost identical[23] This is considered to be the main reason why Benifuuki has greater anti-allergic activity than Yabukita. The goals of the present study were to determine the effect of dietary Benifuuki on fat accumulation, lipid levels in the plasma and liver, and hepatic gene expression in a HF/HS-induced model of obesity in mice
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