Protective effects of curcumin on neonatal rats with necrotizing enterocolitis.
- Author:
Sheng-Hua JIA
1
;
Hong WEI
;
Jia-Lin YU
;
Xiao-Di WEI
;
Xiao-Ping ZHANG
;
Jin-Chun LI
Author Information
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- MeSH: Animals; Animals, Newborn; Body Weight; Curcumin; therapeutic use; Cyclooxygenase 2; analysis; physiology; Disease Models, Animal; Enterocolitis, Necrotizing; drug therapy; pathology; Female; Interleukin-10; analysis; Intestines; pathology; Male; NF-kappa B; physiology; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; analysis
- From: Chinese Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics 2010;12(2):132-136
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
OBJECTIVEThis study examined the effects of curcumin on intestinal histopathological changes, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) concentrations in neonatal rats with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), in order to investigate the effects of curcumin against NEC.
METHODSForty neonatal rats were randomly divided into four groups (n=10 each): normal control, solvent control, NEC model, and curcumin intervention. The general situations of rats were observed for 3 consecutive days, and the rats were then sacrificed on the 4th day. Intestinal tissues were obtained for examining the histopathological changes, COX-2 expression, and TNF-alpha and IL-10 concentrations.
RESULTSCurcumin treatment ameliorated the general situations and histopathological signs in rats with NEC. TNF-alpha and IL-10 concentrations in the NEC model and the curcumin intervention groups increased significantly compared with those in the normal and solvent control groups (p<0.05). The concentration of TNF-alpha decreased (p<0.05), while the concentration of IL-10 increased significantly in the curcumin intervention group in comparison with the NEC model group (p<0.05). Immunohistochemistry results indicated that the positive expression of COX-2 in the curcumin intervention group was significantly lower than that in the NEC model group.
CONCLUSIONSCurcumin has protective effects against NEC in neonatal rats, possibly through inhibiting COX-2 expression, reducing TNF-alpha content, and increasing IL-10 content.