The present study aimed to investigate the effect of curcumin on sepsis-induced acute
lung injury (ALI) in rats, and explore its possible mechanisms. Male Sprague-Dawley
rats were randomly divided into the following five experimental groups (n = 20 per group): animals undergoing a sham cecal ligature puncture (CLP) (sham group);
animals undergoing CLP (control group); or animals undergoing CLP and treated with
vehicle (vehicle group), curcumin at 50 mg/kg (low-dose curcumin [L-Cur] group), or
curcumin at 200 mg/kg (high-dose curcumin [H-Cur] group).At 6, 12, 24 h after CLP,
blood, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and lung tissue were collected. The lung
wet/dry weight (W/D) ratio, protein level, and the number of inflammatory cells in
the BALF were determined. Optical microscopy was performed to examine the pathologic
changes in lungs. Myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, as
well as superoxidase dismutase (SOD) activity were measured in lung tissues. The expression
of inflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interluekin-8 (IL-8),
and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) were determined in the BALF. Survival
rates were recorded at 72 h in the five groups in another experiment. Treatment with
curcumin significantly attenuated the CLP-induced pulmonary edema and inflammation,
as it significantly decreased lung W/D ratio, protein concentration, and the accumulation
of the inflammatory cells in the BALF, as well as pulmonary MPO activity. This was
supported by the histopathologic examination, which revealed marked attenuation of
CLP-induced ALI in curcumin treated rats. In addition, curcumin significantly increased
SOD activity with significant decrease in MDA content in the lung. Also, curcumin
caused down-regulation of the inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-8, and MIF levels in
the lung. Importantly, curcumin improved the survival rate of rats by 40%–50% with
CLP-induced ALI. Taken together, these results demonstrate the protective effects
of curcumin against the CLP-induced ALI. This effect can be attributed to curcumin
ability to counteract the inflammatory cells infiltration and, hence, ROS generation
and regulate cytokine effects.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 26, 2011
Accepted:
November 23,
2011
Received:
September 16,
2011
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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- Curcumin for the Prevention of Acute Lung Injury in Sepsis: Is It More Than the Flavor of the Month?Journal of Surgical ResearchVol. 176Issue 1
- PreviewCurcumin is found in the popular spice turmeric, which is a member of the ginger family. It gives curry its bright yellow color and it is even used as a food color [1]. It has been used for thousands of years as a Chinese and Indian herbal medication [2]. Curcumin has long been known to have anti-inflammatory properties since the 1950s, especially in murine models. Tham and co-workers demonstrated that a curcuminoid substance reduced the lethality in induced abdominal sepsis in mice [3]. The mechanism might be due to up-regulation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-gamma, an anti-inflammatory nuclear receptor.
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