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Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on September 7, 2006
Human Reproduction 2007 22(1):280-287; doi:10.1093/humrep/del353
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Uptake and distribution of catechins in fetal organs following in utero exposure in rats

K.O. Chu1, C.C. Wang1, C.Y. Chu1, K.W. Choy1, C.P. Pang2 and M.S. Rogers1,3

1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and 2 Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong

3 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong. E-mail: msrogers{at}cuhk.edu.hk

BACKGROUND: Although catechins are known to be powerful antioxidants, no reports have shown their transport to fetal organs. We investigated the distribution of catechins in fetal rat organs after maternal exposure to green tea extract (GTE). METHODS: GTE (550 mg/kg) or water was fed orally to pregnant dams at 15.5 days of gestation, the dams were sacrificed and fetal organs were dissected 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8 h later. Catechins and catechin gallates were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) after solid-phase extraction. RESULTS: In the GTE-treated group, catechins were detected in most of the fetal organs studied, including the brain, eyes, heart, lungs, kidneys and liver but not in the control group. The first peak times (Tmax) were about 0.5–1 h. The maximum concentrations (Cmax) of catechins in the fetal eye were about 2–10 times higher than in the other organs, ranging from 249 pmol/g for epicatechin (EC) to 831 pmol/g for epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). Catechin gallates were generally more readily taken up by fetal organs than catechins. EGCG had the highest level of uptake according to area under the curve (AUC) plots and the highest Cmax in all organs. CONCLUSIONS: Various fetal organs had low but significant levels of catechins after GTE intake by the dams, and organ levels were found to be related to catechin structure. EGCG could be a potential candidate for antioxidant supplementation of the fetus in utero.

Key words: antioxidant/catechins/distribution/fetal tissues/green tea


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