Green Tea cures fatty liver

One-fifth of the U.S. population has a fatty liver

Charlston, Feb. 20 : Transplant using fatty livers can be safe if they are rinsed with solution of green tea extract. A report in the March 2005 issue of Liver Transplantation, the journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and the International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS) says so.

Approximately one-fifth of the U.S. population has a fatty liver. The condition is called hepatic steatosis and its primary cause is obesity. Fatty livers are more sensitive than lean livers to I/R injury. They are vulnerable to a greater risk of disease causing death. As a result there are very few healthy livers for donation and transplant. "In fact, nearly one-third of all donated livers are afflicted with fatty changes, but longer waiting lists are forcing practitioners to consider using these organs", mentions the journal report.

Earlier on a study found that livers rinse with a solution of green tea extract prevented failures in transplants using fatty livers. The current study examined whether EGCG, the major flavonoid component in green tea, protected fatty livers from cell damage after I/R injury.

Kenneth D. Chavi of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston along with his team experimented with mice.They administered EGCG orally or through injections and performed surgery to induce I/R injury in mice. The control groups did not receive the EGCG. Mice receiving EGCG by either method showed a survival rate of 100 percent as against 65 percent for the controls. So the EGCG mice had decreased cell death demonstrating that the flavonoid protected the liver from I/R injury.

The researchers then measured fatty acid ; the levels of palmitic and linoleic acid, two fatty acids that are present in large amounts in fatty livers, decreased considerably in EGCG mice. Further tests showed a rise in hepatic energy stores (as the liver stores energy in the form of glycogen) in EGCG mice. Another interesting inferencece drawn was that EGCG was also acting as an antioxidant protecting fatty livers from I/R injury. In addition, the study showed that EGCG reduced liver fat content by approximately 55 percent. The report by the researchers added that ECGC might act as a therapeutic agent for fatty livers used in liver transplants.(ANI)