Supplementary catechins attenuate cooking-oil-fumes-induced oxidative stress in rat lung

Cooking-oil-fumes containing toxic components may induce reactive oxygen species (ROS) to oxidize macromolecules and lead to acute lung injury. Our previous study showed that a decaffineated green tea extract containing (+)-catechin, (-)-epicatechin, (+)-gallocatechin, (-)-epigallocatechin, (-)-epicatechin gallate, and (-)-epigallocatechin gallate can inhibit oxidation, inflammation, and apoptosis. We determined whether the catechins supplement may reduce cooking-oil-fumes-induced acute lung injury in rat. In the urethane-anesthetized Wistar rat subjected to 30-120 min of cooking-oil-fumes exposure, blood ROS significantly increased in the recovery stage. After 30-min cooking-oil-fumes exposure, the enhanced blood ROS level further increased in a time-dependent manner during the recovery stage (321 +/- 69 counts/10 s after 1 h, 540 +/- 89 counts/10 s after 2 h, and 873 +/- 112 counts/10 s after 4 h). Four hours after 30-min cooking-oil-fumes exposure, lung lavage neutrophils and ROS as well as lung tissue dityrosine and 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal increased significantly. Two weeks of catechins supplememnt significantly reduced the enhanced lavage ROS, lung dityrosine and 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal level. Cooking-oil-fumes-induced oxidative stress decreased lung Bcl-2/Bax ratio and HSP70 expression, but catechins treatment preserved the downregulation of Bcl-2/Bax ratio and HSP70 expression. We conclude that catechins supplement attenuates cooking-oil-fumes-induced acute lung injury via the preservation of oil-smoke induced downregulation of antioxidant, antiapoptosis, and chaperone protein expression.