More Research Supports Green Tea Intake

By CP Staff

A recently published study examined the effect of green tea for optimizing immune surveillance. One of the most important functions of the immune system is surveillance, in which abnormal cells or foreign pathogens are identified. With age, the surveillance activity of the immune system decreases, which increases the possibility that cancer cells or pathogenic micro-organisms are allowed to survive.

In this new study, researchers evaluated immune function in elderly mice treated with green tea catechins. The mice were injected with metastatic melanoma cells that had spread to the lungs and produced tumors. The experimental group of mice was given water supplemented with green tea catechins. The researchers then measured activity of the natural killer cells, which are a type of white blood cell responsible for surveillance activity by the immune system.

The results showed that the aged, untreated mice had decreased immune surveillance activity and that treatment with green tea reversed this finding. The accumulation of the metastatic lung-melanoma cells was significantly reduced in the mice given green tea catechins compared to the control group. Additionally, there were fewer lung-metastatic colonies in the mice receiving green tea compared to the control group.

The study authors concluded, “The results suggest that green tea-catechin intake prevented the experimental tumor metastasis in aged SAMP10 mice via its inhibition of a reduction in immune surveillance potential with age.”

Reference:

Shimizu K, Kinouchi Shimizu N, Hakamata W, Unno K, Asai T, Oku N. Preventive effect of green tea catechins on experimental tumor metastasis in senescence-accelerated mice. Biol Pharm Bull. 2010 Jan;33(1):117-21.

Green Tea Extract is available here as a stand-alone supplement and is also found in ImmuneAssist^® 24/7 along with other immune-enhancing ingredients.