Organ Transplantation Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Organ Transplantation, including details on risks, prognosis, procedure, surgery.

Preventive effects of curcumin and dexamethasone on lung transplantation-associated lung injury in rats.

Sun J, Guo W, Ben Y, Jiang J, Tan C, Xu Z, Wang X, Bai C

Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate potential effects of curcumin or dexamethasone on lung transplantation-associated lung injury. DESIGN: Prospective, randomized, controlled study. SETTING: Research laboratory. SUBJECTS: Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. INTERVENTIONS: Sham-operated rats were used as time-matched controls. Experimental rats were subjected to unilateral orthotopic lung transplantation with 4 hrs of cold ischemia followed by 2 hrs (or 24 hrs) of reperfusion. Animals were randomly assigned to vehicle-, curcumin-, or dexamethasone-treated groups. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Transplantation-associated lung injury was characterized by an increased alveolar-capillary permeability and myeloperoxidase activity and decreased levels of arterial oxygen tension/inspired oxygen concentration ratio. Pretreatment with curcumin and dexamethasone significantly prevented barrier disruption, lung edema, tissue inflammation, and decreased PaO2 at the early stage of posttransplantation. Nuclear factor-kappaB in transplanted lungs was activated, accompanied by an increase in messenger RNA levels and protein content of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-6, and matrix metalloproteinase-9 in lung graft. Those changes were prevented by pretreatment with curcumin and dexamethasone. CONCLUSIONS: Curcumin can be an alternative therapy for protecting lung transplantation-associated injury by suppressing nuclear factor-kappaB-mediated expression of inflammatory genes.

Published 1 April 2008 in Crit Care Med, 36(4): 1205-13.
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