How Green Tea May Fight Inflammation
(San Diego, Reuters Health, 1/28/02)

Experimenters have found that the polyphenol, epigallocatechin- gallate (EGCG), which is found in green tea, may stop inflammatory processes. Dr. Hector Wong of Cincinnati Children's Medical Hospital in Ohio & fellow researchers treated cultured human lung cells in a lab dish with the protein called "tumor necrosis factor." This protein typically elicits the expression of the Interleukin-8 gene which results in the production of IL-8, a protein that draws white blood cells to a specific site, creating inflammation. When they introduced EGCG, it blocked the expression of of IL-8.