This study was conducted to determine whether theobromine could be a less addictive, yet effective alternative to caffeine. 0.1mM Caffeine and theobromine were added to separate plates containing HEK293a and were incubated for 48 hours to observe the number of alive/dead cells on each plate. It was hypothesized that theobromine will yield less cytotoxic effects on HEK293a, being a better alternative to caffeine. As a result, there were more living cells and less dead cells observed in the well containing theobromine compared to the well containing caffeine. However, the result did not show a significant difference in the number of dead and live cells between the well exposed to caffeine and theobromine. This experiment only supports that both caffeine and theobromine are toxic to cells. The experiment must be continued to prove the differences in the cytotoxic effects between caffeine and theobromine.
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