• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.901-907
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• 1997

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of green tea catechin o n free radical generation system and peroxidative damage in the liver of streptozotocin(STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Spragu-Dawley male rats weighing 150$\pm$10gm were randomly assigned to one normal and three STZ-induced diabetic groups; diabetic groups were classified to catechin free diet(DM-oC group), 0.5% catechin diet(DM-0.5C group) and 1% catechin diet(DM-1C group) according to the levels of dietary catechin supplementation. Diabetes was experimentally induced by intravenous injection of 55mg/kg of body wt of STZ in citrate buffer(pH 4.3) after feeding of three experimental diet for 4 weeks. Animals were sacrificed at the 6th day of diabetic states. Activities of serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase(GPT) in DM-oC groups were higher than those of the normal group, and those in catechin supplementation group were similar to those of the normal group. Liver lipid peroxide values increased by 153%, 49%, and 27% in Dm-oC, DM-0.5C and DM-0C and Dm-1C but was not significantly different in catechin supplementation groups compared with the normal group, and liver cytochrome $P_{450}$ contents was similar to result of XOD activity. In electron microscopic examination of liver, lysosome was relatively scattered in Dm-oC and Dm-0.5C group and preserved normal shapes in DM-1C group. The present results indicate that STZ-induced diabetic rats are more sensitive to oxidative stress, leading to the acceleration of lipid peroxidation process, but this was reduced by anti-oxidative effect of high level of dietary catechin. It is concluded that dietary catechin serves as powerful antioxidant against lipid peroxidation in diabetic rats.