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Original Research Communication |
1 From the Pharmacology Group, School of Pharmacy, University of Lausanne, Switzerland (TMB, MR, and UTR); the Nestlé Research Center, Lausanne, Switzerland (EAO); and HealthEcon AG, Basel, Switzerland (HS).
2 Supported by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (no. 3100.56877.99), by the Association Française contre les Myopathies, and by a grant-in-aid from the Nestlé Research Center, Lausanne, Switzerland. Taiyo Kagaku Co donated the green tea extracts.
3 Address reprint requests to UT Ruegg, Pharmacology Group, School of Pharmacy, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. E-mail: urs.ruegg{at}dpharm.unil.ch.
| ABSTRACT |
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Objective: Because generation of reactive oxygen species appears to play an important role in the pathogenesis of this disease, we tested whether antioxidant green tea extract could diminish muscle necrosis in the mdx mouse dystrophy model.
Design: A diet supplemented with 0.01% or 0.05% green tea extract was fed to dams and neonates for 4 wk beginning on the day of birth. Muscle necrosis and regeneration were determined in stained cryosections of soleus and elongator digitorum longus muscles. Radical scavenging by green tea extract was determined in differentiated cultured C2C12 cells treated with tert-butylhydroperoxide, with the use of 2',7'-dichlorofluorescin diacetate as a radical detector.
Results: This feeding regimen significantly and dose-dependently reduced necrosis in the fast-twitch muscle elongator digitorum longus but at the doses tested had no effect on the slow-twitch soleus muscle. Green tea extract concentration-dependently decreased oxidative stress induced by tert-butylhydroperoxide treatment of cultured mouse C2C12 myotubes. The lower effective dose tested in mdx mice corresponds to
1.4 L (7 cups) green tea/d in humans.
Conclusion: Green tea extract may improve muscle health by reducing or delaying necrosis in mdx mice by an antioxidant mechanism.
Key Words: Green tea muscular dystrophy reactive oxygen species antioxidant prevention muscle necrosis mdx mice dystrophin X-linked congenital disease
| INTRODUCTION |
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Muscle wasting in DMD and in mdx mice is a degenerative process that involves cycles of necrosis and regeneration. Degenerative processes are usually accompanied or even caused by alterations in calcium homeostasis and in the redox balance. We and others showed that muscle cells from dystrophic mdx mice had slightly elevated cytosolic calcium concentrations ([Ca2+]c) that dramatically increased when the cells were stressed (high amounts of extracellular calcium, hypoosmotic shock) (6, 7). We used this stress technique to evaluate pharmacologic interventions to counteract the exaggerated increase in [Ca2+]c or influx of Ca2+. Both
-methylprednisolone and creatine reduced the exaggerated Ca2+ responses in primary cultures of muscle cells from mdx mice (6, 810). Creatine also reduced necrosis in fast-twitch elongator digitorum longus (EDL) muscle from treated mdx mice but had little effect on slow-twitch soleus muscle (11).
Because the degenerative process in muscle wasting also involves an inflammatory response, it was suggested that oxidative stress may be involved in disease progression (1216). Others found that dystrophic muscle cells appeared to be inherently more susceptible to oxidative stress than were normal muscle cells (12, 13, 15) and that this susceptibility inversely correlated with the amount of residual dystrophin expression (16). Several authors detected markers of oxidative stress in muscles of either DMD patients or mdx mice (14). Evidence for an involvement of reactive oxygen species (ROS) comes from observations that biological byproducts of oxidative stress were higher than normal (lipid peroxidation and protein carbonyls) (17), that cellular antioxidants were lower than normal (glutathione and vitamin E) (14, 18), and that concentrations of antioxidant enzymes were altered (14, 18). Results from Bornman et al (19) suggested that prevention of oxidative stress in mdx mice may protect against disease progression. Their experimental rationale was to decrease the availability of free iron, which participates in transition metalcatalyzed generation of the highly reactive hydroxyl radical (Fenton reaction). In addition, iron deprivation increased the expression of the protective heat shock protein 70 over baseline (19).
Green tea is consumed in many parts of the world and is recognized for its antioxidative and cancer chemopreventive properties (20). Prolonged survival in Japanese cancer patients drinking
1.0 L (5 cups) green tea/d was reported (21). Moreover, green tea extracts (GTEs) and the tea's main constituent, (-)-epigallocatechin gallate, significantly inhibited carcinogen-induced skin, lung, forestomach, breast, esophagus, duodenum, and colon cancers in animal models (20). Green tea polyphenols inhibited cell proliferation in various tumor cell lines in culture and stimulated apoptosis preferentially in transformed cells but not in normal cells (22). The exact mechanism of action of green tea polyphenols is not known, but they possess antioxidative capacity and can trap hydroxyl and peroxyl radicals (23). This antioxidant effect was also reported in humans, who had increased plasma antioxidative capacity after controlled green tea consumption (24, 25).
In the present study, we investigated the effect of crude GTE on muscle necrosis in the mdx dystrophic mouse model. In addition, we assessed whether GTE protects cultured C2C12 myotubes from the prooxidant effect of tert-butylhydroperoxide (BHP).
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Animals and feeding protocol
The mdx mice were originally obtained from Iffa Credo (L'Arbresle, France), but later generations were bred in-house. Mice were housed in plastic cages in a temperature-controlled environment with a 12-h light-dark cycle and free access to food and water. All animal experiments were performed in compliance with the Swiss Federal Veterinary Office's guidelines, based on the Swiss Federal Law on Animal Welfare of 1978, and were approved by the Cantonal Veterinary Service. A control group of 21 mdx mice (4 litters) were fed a standard rat diet (Eberle NAFAG, Gossau, Switzerland), and 2 experimental groups of 4 and 10 mdx mice (1 and 2 litters, respectively) were fed a standard diet supplemented with 0.01% and 0.05% (by wt) GTE, respectively, prepared by Eberle NAFAG. The regimen started at birth by feeding the dams the control or GTE diets. The offspring also had access to the GTE diet after weaning (at
3 wk of age).
Histologic studies
The EDL and soleus muscles of 4-wk-old mdx mice were removed bilaterally under anesthesia and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogencooled isopentane. Mice were euthanized by decapitation. Frozen muscles were cut into 10-µm-thick sections with a cryostat (Frigocut 2800; Reichert-Jung, Arnsberg, Germany) and stored at -80°C. To ensure that we would obtain a large cross-sectional area, cross sections of hematoxylin-eosinstained whole-muscle were taken from the midpoint of the muscle body. This staining procedure distinguishes healthy myotubes, identified by the presence of peripheral nuclei, from necrotic and regenerating areas, characterized by infiltrating lymphocytes (inflammatory and necrotic areas), and areas of regenerating myofibers displaying central nuclei. The total cross-sectional areas and the necrotic and regenerated surfaces were determined by using the Neurolucida system (Microbrightfield, Colchester, VT). Results are expressed as the ratio of the area occupied by inflammatory cells and regenerating myofibers divided by the total surface area as a percentage.
Cell culture
C2C12 myoblasts were cultured in DMEM containing 10% fetal calf serum in a humidified atmosphere of 5% CO2 in air at 37°C. To induce myotube differentiation, confluent cultures of C2C12 myoblasts were incubated in DMEM containing 2% horse serum and 10 µg insulin-like growth factor I/L to stimulate growth and differentiation.
In vitro tests
The antioxidative capacity of GTE was determined with the use of C2C12 myotubes in suspension. After trypsinization, myotubes were centrifuged at 300 x g for 5 min at room temperature and resuspended in Hanks buffered salt solution (HBSS: 1.26 mmol CaCl2/L, 0.5 mmol MgSO4/L, 5.36 mmol KCl/L, 150 mmol NaCl/L, 0.44 mmol KH2PO4/L, 0.27 mmol Na2HPO4/L, 4.2 mmol NaHCO3/L, and 5 mmol glucose/L; pH 7.4). Cells were treated with GTE at room temperature for 20 min in HBSS, centrifuged as above, resuspended in HBSS, and transferred to a quartz cuvette in a Fluorolog 3000 spectrofluorimeter (Yobin Yvon Ltd, Stanmore, United Kingdom) at 37°C. The formation of ROS was monitored with the use of DCFH. DCFH was applied to cells as the nonreactive DCFH-DA. During cellular uptake DCFH-DA is deacetylated by membrane-associated esterases to DCFH, which is not fluorescent. Oxidation by ROS then yields the highly fluorescent DCF. After a 2-min equilibration at 37°C, DCFH-DA was added to the final concentration of 5 µmol/L and the development of basal DCF fluorescence at excitation and emission wavelengths of 501 and 521 nm, respectively, was followed for another 2 min. Oxidative stress was induced by adding 0.5 mmol BHP/L, and the formation of DCF was followed for 18 min. The rate of DCF formation during the last minute of incubation was used to determine the specific ROS formation, normalized for protein content determined by the Bradford assay (26). Results are expressed as the amount of DCF formedmin-1mg protein-1. To ensure that the antioxidative activity of GTE was caused by intracellular localization of the active components, extracellular GTE was removed by centrifugation at 300 x g for 5 min at room temperature before the BHP stress protocol.
Statistical analysis
Results are expressed as means ± SDs. Statistical evaluation was performed by using one-way analysis of variance followed by Dunnett's post hoc tests with the use of the lnPlotPrism software version 3.0 (GraphPad Software, San Diego). P values
0.05 were considered significant.
| RESULTS |
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140 mg GTE/kg body wt for an adult mouse or
4 mL brewed green tea (20).
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77% of the surface was occupied by necrosis or regenerating cells or both, whereas
47% of EDL muscle had necrotic or regenerating surfaces. GTE treatment had no detectable effect on soleus muscle, but in fast-twitch EDL muscle the area occupied by necrotic and regenerating fibers was 30 ± 13% and 26 ± 7% after treatment with 0.01% GTE and 0.05% GTE, respectively.
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55 pmolmin-1mg protein-1. Other prooxidants were tested for their capacity to generate cell-dependent fluorescence (data not shown). Of these, N-ethylmaleimide (1 mmol/L) and 2,3-dimethoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone (10 µmol/L) strongly reacted with DCFH in the absence of cells and could not be used. Cisplatin (10 µmol/L), paraquat (10 µmol/L), bacterial lipopolysaccharide (10 mg/L), and potassium cyanide (0.1 mmol/L) were relatively inert toward DCFH, but their cell-mediated generation of fluorescence was marginal compared with BHP. The concentration of BHP used (0.5 mmol/L) was nontoxic to the cells during the 20 min of treatment as determined by visual evaluation (floating cells, membrane blebbing) and protein quantification. The use of a combination of DCFH-DA and BHP ensured that the fluorescent signal detected was representative of ROS generated within myotubes.
Pretreatment of C2C12 myotubes with GTE for 20 min showed that GTE dose-dependently decreased the BHP-induced DCF signal with a median inhibitory concentration of 18 ± 3 mg/L (Figure 3
).
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| DISCUSSION |
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Whether green tea polyphenols are transferred from mothers to offspring is unknown, and we did not attempt to determine serum polyphenol concentrations in the offspring. Therefore, it is unclear whether the protective effect on EDL necrosis was afforded by exposure to polyphenols from birth on (via mother's milk) or only via dietary exposure starting at weaning. Note that even if offspring received green tea polyphenols via mother's milk, the amounts ingested most likely increased after weaning because of direct exposure. Thus, the GTE effect might be mostly caused by the GTE ingested with food after weaning.
It was suggested that oxidative stress might contribute to muscular dystrophy (19), so antioxidants might protect against disease onset or progression. Green tea polyphenols have antioxidative properties and appear to be potent scavengers of hydroxyl radicals (OH) known for their damaging effects on cellular macromolecules (28). Takabayashi et al (29) showed that a single dose of GTE significantly decreased the amount of 8-hydroxyguanosine, a marker of OH attack on DNA, in pancreatic and hepatic DNA in hamsters. A second protective effect of GTE polyphenols may be that they increase the expression of detoxifying enzymes (eg, glutathione transferase) and glutathione synthesis (30, 31). By this mechanism GTE might boost the endogenous antioxidative capacity and indirectly increase the detoxification of ROS. GTE and its major polyphenolic constituents are also recognized for their anticarcinogenic properties, mediated, at least in part, by their antioxidative capacity (20).
The hypothesis that GTE is chemoprotective was supported by the finding that regular intake of green tea [>1.0 L (5 cups)/d] significantly reduced the incidence of certain cancers in the Japanese population (32). In the present study, the lower effective dose of 0.01% GTE, which significantly reduced necrosis and regeneration in EDL muscle, corresponds to
1.4 L (7 cups) green tea/d in humans; thus, dietary intervention in DMD patients is feasible. However, because this small-scale study used laboratory animals, further studies in both animals and humans are necessary to confirm a protective effect of GTE in DMD. Nevertheless, green tea may offer an inexpensive, effective, and nontoxic intervention strategy for persons with DMD.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| REFERENCES |
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