Culture and treatment of Caco-2 cells
The human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma Caco-2 cells were purchased from KCB (Kunming, China). and were cultured in DMEM comlete medium comprising 10% fetal bovine serum, and 1% penicillin–streptomycin at 37℃ in a humidified 5% CO2 atmosphere. The Caco-2 cells were starved for 12h and intervened with EGCG (10ug/ml or 30ug/ml) with or without Lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 25ug/ml) for 24 h. The supernatant from each treatment was used to determine the levels of TNF-α protein released by the cells using a ELISA kit. Cells were collected for Western blot analysis.