Green Tea Polyphenol Protection Against 4-Nitroquinoline 1-Oxide-Induced Bone Marrow Lipid Peroxidation and Genotoxicity in Wistar Rats

4-Nitroquinoline 1-oxide (4-NQO) a potent oral carcinogen, widely used for induction of oral carcinogenesis,has been found to induce lipid peroxidation in vivo and in vitro. Green tea contains a high content of polyphenols,which are potent antioxidants. Thus green tea polyphenols (GTP) might be expected play a protective role against4-NQO induced lipid peroxidation and bone marrow toxicity. In the present study, a dose of 200 mg of GTP/kgb.wt/day was given orally for a week, simultaneously animals received 0.2 ml of 0.5% 4-NQO in propylene glycol(5 mg/ml) injected intramuscularly for three times/week. Oxidants and antioxidants such as malendialdehyde(MDA) and thiols, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), superoxide dismutase (SOD) andcatalase (CAT) were significantly decreased in 4-NQO induced animals except MDA, and these parameters werebrought back to near normalcy on treatment with GTP. The results suggest that GTP treatment offers significantprotection against 4-NQO induced lipid peroxidation and bone marrow toxicity and might be a promisingpotential candidate for prevention of mutations leading to cancer.