Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Antioxidant Effect of Curcumin Against Microcystin-LR-Induced Renal Oxidative Damage in Balb/c Mice

Saad Al-Jassabi^1,2, Khaled Abdul-Aziz Ahmed^3,4 , Mahmood Ameen Abdulla⁴

¹Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; ²Faculty of Science, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan; ³Department of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, Ibb University, P.O.Box 70627, Ibb, Yemen; ⁴Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

For correspondence:- Khaled Ahmed Email: khaaah@gmail.com

Received: 14 July 2011 Accepted: 1 June 2012 Published: 16 August 2012

Citation: Al-Jassabi S, Ahmed KA, Abdulla MA. Antioxidant Effect of Curcumin Against Microcystin-LR-Induced Renal Oxidative Damage in Balb/c Mice. Trop J Pharm Res 2012; 11(4):531-536 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v11i4.2

© 2012 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the effect of curcumin on microcystin-LR (MC-LR)- induced renal oxidative damage in Balb/c mice.

Methods: 40 male Balb/c mice were assigned randomly to 4 groups each having 10 mice. One group served as normal (saline treated) while another group was used as curcumin control. The third group was given MC-LR and used as toxin control. The fourth group was pre-treated with curcumin (300 mg/kg body wt) given orally once daily for 14 days before interperitoneal injection (i.p) of MC-LR (75 µg/kg body wt). Biochemical assays including serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), urinary glucose, gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) and catalase (CAT) levels were measured. Renal biochemical tests such as protein carbonyl contents and DNA-protein cross-links, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity, glutathione (GSH) and lipid hydroperoxide (LOOH) were evaluated.

Results: Serum creatinine, BUN, urinary glucose, GGT increased in mice treated with MC-LR, while creatinine clearance decreased compared to controls (p < 0.001), indicating occurrence of tubular damage. There was increased protein carbonyl content and DNA-protein cross-links in the kidney homogenates of these mice. Curcumin administration significantly reversed these effects and attenuated the MC-LR-induced reduction in the activities of CAT, GPH-Px, GSH as well as the MC-LR-induced increases in plasma and kidney lipid hydroperoxide.

Conclusion: These results indicate that curcumin possesses natural antioxidant properties that renders it a potent protective agent against renal oxidative damage mediated by microcystin-LR.

Keywords: Antioxidants, Curcumin, Microcystin, Renal oxidative damage