Curcumin prevents chronic alcohol-induced liver disease involving decreasing ROS generation and enhancing antioxidative capacity.

a b s t r a c t Our previous study found that curcumin, a major active component of turmeric, could ameliorate ethanol- induced hepatocytes oxidative stress in vitro. The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of curcumin on chronic alcoholic liver disease (ALD) in vivo. Ethanol-exposed (2.4 g/kg/day ethanol for the initial 4 weeks and 4 g/kg/day for another 2 weeks) Balb/c mice were simultaneously treated with cur- cumin for 6 weeks. The results showed that curcumin attenuated ethanol-induced histopathological changes of the liver and ameliorated the evident release of cellular alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST). Ethanol exposure resulted in reactive oxygen species (ROS) genera- tion, malondialdehyde (MDA) elevation, glutathione (GSH) depletion and antioxidant defense system impairment, which were significantly reversed by curcumin treatment. In conclusion, curcumin pro- vided protection against chronic ALD and the mechanism might be related to the alleviation of oxidative damage.