INHIBITORY EFFECT OF TEA CATECHINS ON COLLAGENASE ACTIVITY

A MAJOR PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY was to examine inhibitory effect of the catechin derivatives from Japanese green tea Camellia sinensis on coll agenase activity. The crude tea catechins, which contain (+)-catechin (C), (-)-epicatechin (EC), (+)-gallocatechin (GC), (-)-epigallocatechi n (EGC), (-)-epicatechin gallate (ECg), and (-)-epigallocatechin galla te (EGCg), were tested for their ability to inhibit the prokaryotic an d eukaryotic cell derived collagenase activities. Among the tea catech ins tested, ECg and EGCg showed the most potent inhibitory effect on c ollagenase activity when an optimal concentration of tea catechins (10 0 mug/ml) was added to reaction mixture containing collagenase and col lagen. Preincubation of collagenase with tea catechins reduced the col lagenase activity as well. In contrast to ECg and EGCg, the other four tea catechins (C, EC, EGC, and GC) did not show any collagenase inhib itory effect. Our results suggest that the steric structure of 3-gallo yl radical is important for the inhibition of collagenase activity. Th e collagenase activity in the gingival crevicular fluid from highly pr ogressive adult periodontitis was completely inhibited by the addition of tea catechins. These results demonstrated that tea catechins conta ining galloyl radical possess the ability to inhibit both eukaryotic a nd prokaryotic cell derived collagenase.