Curcumin 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. In one study, a bolus
injection of curcumin given to rats reduced mortality by this mechanism [
4
]. It has also been found to have activity in alleviating the chronic changes in asthma
[
5
]. Also, its anti-inflammatory effect appears to be responsible for curcumin's ability
to prevent pulmonary toxicity from paraquat [
6
]. It has also been shown to reduce pulmonary toxicity from bleomycin and oleic acid
[
7
,
8
]. Others have also shown the prevention of acute lung injury due to sepsis. Lian and
colleagues demonstrated that curcumin reduced endotoxin-mediated lung injury in a
rat model [
9
]. It may also have an effect as an oxygen radical scavenger [
10
]. In studies examining prevention of radiation-induced lung injury, dietary curcumin
was found to ameliorate pulmonary fibrosis and increased mouse survival while not
impairing tumor cell killing by radiation [
11
]. In an article previously published in the Journal of Surgical Research, Liu et al. demonstrated that curcumin helped to prevent cardiopulmonary bypass induced lung
injury [
12
]. Unfortunately, the poor solubility of curcumin, due to its hydrophobic property
and preferential interaction with lipid membranes, limits its bioavailability and
clinical efficacy. To increase its solubility and bioavailability, Sun and co-workers
have demonstrated increased efficacy in preventing lung injury in experimental sepsis
in mice through encapsulation in liposomes [
13
]. Others have shown that injection of Sertoli cells, preloaded with curcumin, reduces
the incidence of oxidative injury to the lung and ARDS in a lung transplantation model
[
14
]. Also, on a cellular level, pretreatment with curcumin modulates leukocyte and platelet
adhesion improves survival in mice sepsis [
15
].To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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- Curcumin attenuates the organ dysfunction caused by endotoxemia in the rat.Nutrition. 2008; 24: 1133
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 21, 2011
Accepted:
November 29,
2011
Received:
November 27,
2011
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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- Curcumin Protects Against Sepsis-Induced Acute Lung Injury in RatsJournal of Surgical ResearchVol. 176Issue 1
- PreviewThe 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.
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