Review Article Green Tea Polyphenols for the Protection against Renal Damage Caused by Oxidative Stress

Copyright © 2012 Takako Yokozawa et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Green tea, prepared from the leaves of Camellia sinensis L., is a beverage that is popular worldwide. Polyphenols in green tea have been receiving much attention as potential compounds for the maintenance of human health due to their varied biological activity and low toxicity. In particular, the contribution of antioxidant activity to the prevention of diseases caused by oxidative stress has been focused upon. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the effects of (−)-epigallocatechin 3-O-gallate and (−)-epigallocatechin 3-O-gallate, which account for a large fraction of the components of green tea polyphenol, on oxidative stress-related renal disease. Our observations suggest that green tea polyphenols have a beneficial effect on pathological states related to oxidative stress of the kidney. 1. Background Clinical and experimental studies have resulted in extensive discussions of the link between renal disease and oxidative stress, which is directly or indirectly derived from various pathological conditions such as hyperglycemia, free radical