Curcumin prevents cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury via increase of mitochondrial biogenesis.
Curcumin is known to have neuroprotective properties in cerebral ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown. Recently, emerging evidences suggested that increased mitochondrial biogenesis enabled preventing I/R injury. Here, we sought to determinate whether curcumin alleviates I/R damage through regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis. Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to a 2-h period of right middle cerebral artery occlusion followed by 24 h of reperfusion. Prior to onset of occlusion, rats had been pretreated with either low (50 mg/kg, intraperitoneal injection) or high (100 mg/kg, intraperitoneal injection) dose of curcumin for 5 days. Consequently, we found that curcumin pretreatment enabled improving neurological deficit, diminishing infarct volume and increasing the number of NeuN-labeled neurons in the I/R rats. Accordingly, the index of mitochondrial biogenesis including nuclear respiratory factor-1, mitochondrial transcription factor A and mitochondrial number significantly down-regulated in I/R rats were reversed by curcumin pretreatment in a dose-dependent manner, and the mitochondrial uncoupling protein 2 presented the similar change. Taken together, our findings provided novel evidence that curcumin may exert neuroprotective effects by increasing mitochondrial biogenesis.
Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, 1 Youyi Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing, 400016, People's Republic of China.
Li
L
Liu
Wenchao
W
Zhang
Li
L
Wang
Yu
Y
Li
Botao
B
Tan
Xi
X
Lu
Yushuang
Y
Deng
Yuping
Y
Zhang
Xiuming
X
Guo
Jun
J
Mu
Gang
G
Yu
D000818:Animals; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003474:Curcumin / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D063269:Mitochondrial Turnover / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015427:Reperfusion Injury / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*
D018696:Neuroprotective Agents; D003474:Curcumin