As antioxidants, polyphenols are considered to be potentially useful in preventing chronic diseases in man, including Parkinson's disease (PD), a disease involving dopamine (DA) neurons. Our studies have demonstrated that polyphenols extracted from green tea (GT) can inhibit the uptake of H-3-dopamine (H-3-DA) and 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+) by DA transporters (DAT) and partially protect embryonic rat mesencephalic dopaminergic (DAergic) neurons from MPP+-induced injury. The inhibitory effects of GT polyphenols on H-3-DA uptake were determined in DAT-pCDNA3-traiisfected Chinese Hamster Ovary (DAT-CHO) cells and in striatal synaptosomes of C57BL/6 mice in vitro and in vivo. The inhibitory effects on H-3-MPP+ uptake were determined in primary cultures of embryonic rat mesencephalic DAergic cells. Inhibition of uptake for both H-3-DA and H-3-MPP+ was dose-dependent in the presence of polyphenols. Incubation with 50 muM MPP+ resulted in a significant loss of tyrosine-hydroxylase (TH)-positive cells in the primary embryonic mesencephalic cultures, while pretreatment with polyphenols (10 to 30 mug/ml) or mazindol (10 muM), a classical DAT inhibitor, significantly attenuated MPP+-induced loss of TH-positive cells. These results suggest that GT polyphenols have inhibitory effects on DAT, through which they block MPP+ uptake and protect DAergic neurons against MPP+-induced injury. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
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