Curcumin compares favorably to the drug dexamethasone in a rat model of lung injury. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Effects of curcumin or dexamethasone on lung ischaemia-reperfusion injury in rats.
Cancer Lett. 2003 Mar 31;192(2):145-9. PMID: 18799504
Dept of Pulmonary Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Feng Lin Road, Shanghai, 200032, China.
The present study aimed to investigate potential effects of curcumin (CUR) and dexamethasone (DXM) on ischaemia-reperfusion (I/R) induced lung injury in rats. Experimental rats were pre-treated with a single i.p. dose of vehicle, CUR (50 mg.kg(-1) or 200 mg.kg(-1)) or DXM (5 mg.kg(-1)), 2 h before anaesthesia and subjected to left lung hilus clamping with 90-min ischaemia followed by 4 h of reperfusion. Pre-treatment with CUR (200 mg.kg(-1)) or DXM markedly attenuated I/R-induced barrier disruption, lung oedema, tissue inflammation, hypoxaemia 4 h after reperfusion, and overactivation of nuclear factor-kappaB, inflammatory cytokines, myeloperoxidase and malondialdehyde. It appears that curcumin attenuates acute lung injury, probably through improving oxidative stress and inhibiting nuclear factor-kappaB-mediated expression of inflammatory cytokines. Thus, curcumin may be an alternative therapy for improving the outcomes of ischaemia-reperfusion-induced lung injury.
