The present study aimed at investigating the effects of curcumin on the motor coordination and the estimate of the total number of cerebellar Purkinje cells of adolescent Wistar rats exposed to ethanol.

OBJECTIVEThe present study aimed at investigating the effects of curcumin on the motor coordination and the estimate of the total number of cerebellar Purkinje cells of adolescent Wistar rats exposed to ethanol.

METHODSThe total of 21 male Wistar rats aged 37 d old were divided into three groups, namely ethanol, ethanol-curcumin, and control groups. The ethanol group received 1.5 g/kg ethanol injected intraperitoneally and water given per oral; the ethanol-curcumin group received 1.5 g/kg ethanol injected intraperitoneally and curcumin extract given per oral; the control group received saline injection and oral water. The treatment was carried out daily for one month, after which the motor coordination performance of the rats was examined using revolving drum apparatus at test days 1, 8, and 15. The rats were finally sacrificed and the cerebellum of the rats was further processed for stereological analysis. The estimate of the total number of Purkinje cells was calculated using physical fractionator method.

RESULTSThe ethanol-curcumin group performed better than both ethanol and control groups in the motor coordination ability at day 8 of testing (P< 0.01). No Purkinje cell loss was observed as a result of one month intraperitoneal injection of ethanol.

CONCLUSIONCurcumin may exert beneficial effects on the motor coordination of adolescent rats exposed to ethanol via undetermined hormetic mechanisms.

Animals ; Cell Count ; Cerebellum ; cytology ; drug effects ; Curcumin ; pharmacology ; Ethanol ; toxicity ; Male ; Motor Activity ; drug effects ; Psychomotor Performance ; Purkinje Cells ; cytology ; drug effects ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar

Introduction: The toxicity of high concentration monosodium glutamate (MSG) has become a controversial issue because of its inconsistent results in human and animal studies. This present study aims to evaluate the effect of subchronic high-doses oral administration of MSG on spatial memory performance and hippocampal pyramidal cells number. Methods: This study involved twenty-eight male Wistar rats, which were divided into a control group of NaCl 0.9% and three intervention groups of MSG 1.0 mg/g bodyweight (M1), 2.0 mg/g bodyweight (M2), and 4.0 mg/g bodyweight (M3) for 30 days. Statistical analysis used a One-way ANOVA test. Results: The result showed significant differences in spatial memory on the Morris Water Maze (MWM) test, including path length (p = 0.020) and escape latency (p = 0.011) according to general linear model repeated measurement analysis. The mean difference of estimated hippocampal pyramidal cells total number among the groups showed volume (p = 0.001), numerical density (p = 0.590), and cells number (p = 0.004). Furthermore, Post-Hoc analysis in both spatial memory and hippocampal pyramidal cells showed that the increasing MSG dose from 1.0 to 4.0 mg/g bodyweight led to a decrease in the results of spatial memory performance on the MWM test and a decrease in hippocampal cells. Conclusion: The present study has provided novel quantitative data that subchronic administration of high-dose MSG caused deleterious effects on the spatial memory function and the volume and number of hippocampal pyramidal cells.