Protective effect of green tea on electric properties of rat erythrocyte membrane during ethanol intoxication

Food ingredients, such as, ethanol that is metabolized with reactive aldehyde and free radicals formation can modify cell membrane components and its physicochemical properties. The destructive action of free radicals can be neutralized by administration of antioxidants, especially natural ones like green tea. For this reason, the purpose of this work was to determine the effect of green tea on concentration of ionizable groups, amount of phospholipids and level of lipid peroxidation products of erythrocyte membrane of rats, chronically intoxicated with ethanol. The surface charge density as a pH function used for the above calculations was measured by electrophoresis. Qualitative and quantitative composition of phospholipids in the membrane was determined by HPLC, while the extent of lipid peroxidation was determined by spectrophotometric measurement of the level of lipid peroxidation products as thiobarbituric reactive substances (TBARS). It was shown that ethanol intoxication caused an increase in the above parameters. Green tea significantly prevented changes caused by ethanol. The authors proposed the theoretical description for the experimental curves.