RESUMEN
We investigated the combined effects of 'Benifuuki,' a tea cultivar that contains O-methylated catechins like epigallocatechin-3-O-(3-O-methyl) gallate, and quercetin on hepatic fat accumulation in male Sprague-Dawley rats fed a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet for 15 d. Rats given 'Benifuuki'+quercetin had synergistically lower liver triglyceride (TG) level compared with rats given 'Benifuuki' or quercetin alone. Compared with 'Benifuuki' or quercetin alone, supplementation with 'Benifuuki'+quercetin resulted in a low level of fatty acid synthase (FAS) and stearoyl-CoA desaturase1 (SCD1) gene expression levels. These results suggest that the combination of 'Benifuuki' and quercetin has greater liver lipid-lowing effects than that of 'Benifuuki' or quercetin alone. The liver TG-lowing effect of combination of 'Benifuuki' with quercetin may be partially mediated by the suppression of lipogenesis. The combination of 'Benifuuki' and quercetin suppresses hepatic fat accumulation in high fat high cholesterol diet fed rats, showing a new trend of 'Benifuuki' as synergist with quercetin.