Green Tea

Green Tea Catechins Inhibit Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor Phosphorylation1
Sylvie Lamy, Denis Gingras and Richard Béliveau2

Laboratoire de Médecine Moléculaire, Centre de Cancérologie Charles-Bruneau, Hôpital Ste-Justine et Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec H3C 3P8, Canada

Cancer Research 62, 381-385, January 15, 2002

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors (VEGFR) play a major role in tumor angiogenesis and, thus, represent attractive targets for the development of novel anticancer therapeutics. In this work, we report that green tea catechins are novel inhibitors of VEGFR-2 activity. Physiological concentrations (0.01–1 µM) of epigallocatechin-3 gallate, catechin-3 gallate, and, to a lesser extent, epicatechin-3 gallate induce a rapid and potent inhibition of VEGF-dependent tyrosine phosphorylation of VEGFR-2. The inhibition of VEGFR-2 by epigallocatechin-3 gallate was similar to that induced by Semaxanib (SU5416), a specific VEGFR-2 inhibitor. The inhibition of VEGFR-2 activity by the catechins displayed positive correlation with the suppression of in vitro angiogenesis. These observations suggest that the anticancer properties of green tea extracts may be related to their inhibition of VEGF-dependent angiogenesis.

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