Green tea ingredient may ameliorate memory impairment, brain insulin resistance, and obesity

"Green tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water, and is grown in at least 30 countries," said Xuebo Liu, Ph.D., a researcher at the College of Food Science and Engineering, Northwest A&F University, in Yangling, China. "The ancient habit of drinking green tea may be a more acceptable alternative to medicine when it comes to combatting obesity, insulin resistance, and memory impairment."

Liu and colleagues divided 3-month-old male C57BL/6J mice into three groups based on diet:

1) a control group fed with a standard diet,

2) a group fed with an HFFD diet, and 3) a group fed with an HFFD diet and 2 grams of EGCG per liter of drinking water.

For 16 weeks, researchers monitored the mice and found that those fed with HFFD had a higher final body weight than the control mice, and a significantly higher final body weight than the HFFD+EGCG mice. In performing a Morris water maze test, researchers found that mice in the HFFD group took longer to find the platform compared to mice in the control group. The HFFD+EGCG group had a significantly lower escape latency and escape distance than the HFFD group on each test day. When the hidden platform was removed to perform a probe trial, HFFD-treated mice spent less time in the target quadrant when compared with control mice, with fewer platform crossings. The HFFD+EGCG group exhibited a significant increase in the average time spent in the target quadrant and had greater numbers of platform crossings, showing that EGCG could improve HFFD-induced memory impairment.

"Many reports, anecdotal and to some extent research-based, are now greatly strengthened by this more penetrating study," said Thoru Pederson, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal.