
<ArticleTitle>Green tea extracts decrease carcinogen-induced mammary tumor burden in rats and rate of breast cancer cell proliferation in culture.</ArticleTitle>
<AbstractText>Epidemiological evidence suggests tea (Camellia sinensis L.) has chemopreventive effects against various tumors. Green tea contains many polyphenols, including epigallocatechin-3 gallate (EGCG), which possess anti-oxidant qualities. Reduction of chemically induced mammary gland carcinogenesis by green tea in a carcinogen-induced rat model has been suggested previously, but the results reported were not statistically significant. Here we have tested the effects of green tea on mammary tumorigenesis using the 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) Sprague-Dawley (S-D) rat model. We report that green tea significantly increased mean latency to first tumor, and reduced tumor burden and number of invasive tumors per tumor-bearing animal; although, it did not affect tumor number in the female rats. Furthermore, we show that proliferation and/or viability of cultured Hs578T and MDA-MB-231 estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer cell lines was reduced by EGCG treatment. Similar negative effects on proliferation were observed with the DMBA-transformed D3-1 cell line. Growth inhibition of Hs578T cells correlated with induction of <prot><prot>p27(Kip1)</prot> cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor</prot> (CKI) expression. Hs578T cells expressing elevated levels of p27(Kip1) protein due to stable ectopic expression displayed increased G1 arrest. Thus, green tea had significant chemopreventive effects on carcinogen-induced mammary tumorigenesis in female S-D rats. In culture, inhibition of human breast cancer cell proliferation by EGCG was mediated in part via induction of the <prot><prot>p27(Kip1)</prot> CKI</prot>.</AbstractText>
