title: Green tea extract prolongs allograft survival as an adjunctive therapy along with low dose cyclosporine A.
abstract: The current immunosuppressive drugs are successful in prolonging allograft survival but fail to achieve transplantation tolerance or prevent chronic rejection. Consequently, there is ongoing research to develop novel combinatorial therapies that are more efficacious in prolonging allograft survival as well as induce tolerance toward the transplanted organ. The present study aims to study the efficacy of green tea extract (GTE) in combination with low dose cyclosporine A (CyA) in prolonging allograft survival in mice. Numerous studies have reported the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties of GTE and its various catechin components. GTE is also known to attenuate CyA induced nephrotoxicity. Therefore, we hypothesized that GTE alone or in combination with CyA will prolong graft survival. Our study demonstrates that GTE in combination with low dose CyA significantly prolongs graft survival as well as increase the production of immunosuppressive cytokine, IL-10. GTE also decreases CyA induced high TGF-beta production, which is incriminated in CyA induced nephrotoxicity. We also observed that GTE inhibits both nonspecific and antigen-specific proliferation of T cells in vitro. These results indicate the potential of GTE as an adjunctive therapy in combination with CyA to prolong allograft survival and to reduce CyA induced nephrotoxicity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, The State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York 13210, USA.
authors.forename: Sudipta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tripathi
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bruch
authors.forename: Louis A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Gatto
authors.forename: Dilip S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Kittur
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D028241:Camellia sinensis; D016572:Cyclosporine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016207:Cytokines / Q000032:analysis; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006085:Graft Survival / Q000187:drug effects*; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D010936:Plant Extracts; D016572:Cyclosporine