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About the cover illustration: Thea sinensis - the common tea plant
About the cover illustration
THEA SINENSIS - THE COMMON TEA PLANT A number of studies have suggested that green tea might be good for cardiovascular health; it certainly has been good for the health food industry. Although some of the early studies did not compare it against black tea (and thus added a bit of irony to the media storm), there are substances of interest that are present in green tea alone and that are now under careful scrutiny. One of them, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), is the subject of a report in this month’s issue of the Journal. It has been of particular interest because it may have anti-fibrogenic activity. This could play a protective role in vascular disease, but researchers from Kyushu University explored whether the compound might also have activity in other fibrotic states; they studied its effect on the activation of liver stellate cells. They found that EGCG had an effect on Rho signaling pathways in a cell line derived from hepatic stellate cells; it also inhibited stress fiber formation and changed the distribution of alpha smooth muscle actin. These inhibitory effects of EGCG were not as prominent in cells transfected with a plasmid to produce overexpression of constituitively active J Lab Clin Med 2005;145:328 –9. 0022-2143/$ – see front matter © 2005 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.lab.2005.05.003
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J Lab Clin Med Volume 145, Number 6
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Rho. It’s a bit early to advocate green tea as a way to prevent cirrhosis, but EGCG and related compounds merit further study. This month’s cover illustration is from a pre-1900 herbal, showing the plant from which tea is obtained. It has been scanned and posted (along with several other long-out-of-print sources) and made available by the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine (Brisbee, Arizona) at www. ibiblio.org/swsbm/illustrations/Thea_sinensis.gif. Dale Hammerschmidt, M.D. Editor-in-Chief
THEA SINENSIS - THE COMMON TEA PLANT A number of studies have suggested that green tea might be good for cardiovascular health; it certainly has been good for the health food industry. Although some of the early studies did not compare it against black tea (and thus added a bit of irony to the media storm), there are substances of interest that are present in green tea alone and that are now under careful scrutiny. One of them, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), is the subject of a report in this month’s issue of the Journal. It has been of particular interest because it may have anti-fibrogenic activity. This could play a protective role in vascular disease, but researchers from Kyushu University explored whether the compound might also have activity in other fibrotic states; they studied its effect on the activation of liver stellate cells. They found that EGCG had an effect on Rho signaling pathways in a cell line derived from hepatic stellate cells; it also inhibited stress fiber formation and changed the distribution of alpha smooth muscle actin. These inhibitory effects of EGCG were not as prominent in cells transfected with a plasmid to produce overexpression of constituitively active J Lab Clin Med 2005;145:328 –9. 0022-2143/$ – see front matter © 2005 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.lab.2005.05.003
328
J Lab Clin Med Volume 145, Number 6
329
Rho. It’s a bit early to advocate green tea as a way to prevent cirrhosis, but EGCG and related compounds merit further study. This month’s cover illustration is from a pre-1900 herbal, showing the plant from which tea is obtained. It has been scanned and posted (along with several other long-out-of-print sources) and made available by the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine (Brisbee, Arizona) at www. ibiblio.org/swsbm/illustrations/Thea_sinensis.gif. Dale Hammerschmidt, M.D. Editor-in-Chief