FOOD SCIENCE ›› 2020, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (15): 208-215.doi: 10.7506/spkx1002-6630-20191014-109

• Nutrition & Hygiene • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Protective Effects of Curcumin and Its Metabolites on H2O2-Induced Oxidative Damage in PC12 Cells

LI Haoming, HUANG Yongjie, WANG Yongli, LI Dapeng, LI Feng   

  1. (College of Food Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018, China)
  • Online:2020-08-15 Published:2020-08-19

Abstract: This study aimed to compare the protective effects of curcumin and its major metabolites tetrahydrocurcumin and curcumin-β-D-glucuronide on H2O2-induced oxidative damage in rat adrenal pheochromocytoma PC12 cells. After the cells were treated with the three compounds separately, the cell viability and reactive oxygen species (ROS) level were determined by thiazolyl blue tetrazolium bromide assay and 2’,7’-dichlorodi-hydrofluorescein diacetate fluorescent probe, respectively. Meanwhile, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were detected by commercial kits, and the expression of antioxidant proteins was quantified by Western blot. The results showed that curcumin and its metabolites significantly reduced H2O2-stimulated ROS and MDA levels in PC12 cells, increased SOD activity (P < 0.05), up-regulated the expression of Nrf2 protein in the cytoplasm and nucleus of kidney, and activated downstream hemeoxygenase-1 and NADPH quinineoxidoreductase-1 proteins. In general, the curcumin metabolites presented weaker protective effects than curcumin. These results may provide an experimental basis to understand the health-promoting mechanism of curcumin.

Key words: curcumin, tetrahydrocurcumin, glucuronide, rat adrenal pheochromocytoma cells, oxidative damage

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