Protective effect of curcumin on alcohol-induced oxidative damage in rat primary cultured hepatocytes.

Objective To study the protective effects of curcumin on oxidative damage induced by alcohol.Methods The rat primary hepatocytes were isolated and cultured by using two steps collagenase perfusion technique.The cells were treated with alcohol at different dosages(0-200 mmol/L)in different time(0-24 h)to definite the sensitive ethanol exposure dosage and time.On the basis of this, the hepatocytes were pre-treated with curcumin at different doses(0-50 μmol/L)in different time(0-5 h) before ethanol exposure(100 mmol/L,8 h).Then the activity of LDH, AST which released from hepatocyte and the cellular MDA, SOD,GSH were determined in order to observe the protection of curcumin and the time-dose-response effects.Results Compared with the normal hepatocytes, there was a great increase of AST and LDH release in the supernatants as well as MDA formation in hepatocytes, and a decrease of the level of GSH and SOD in ethanol group along with the increase of ethanol stimulate dose and time, it was so obvious at 100 mmol/L or 8 h.Compared with the alcohol group, pre-treatment of curcumin could significantly prohibit the release of AST and LDH(P0.05) , the increase of MDA level(P0.05) and the decrease of SOD activities and GSH content(P0.05) of hepatocytes exposed to ethanol.The level of AST and LDH significantly increased in alcohol group and nearly reached to the same level as the normal group when the curcumin at the dose of 15 μmol/L and 30 μmol/L respectively.And the SOD reached to the normal level at both 15 μmol/L and 30 μmol/L.The pre-treatment of curcumin(15 μmol/L)1 h and 5 h before alcohol exposure showed better protective effect than 0 h, and 1 h was the best .Conclusion Curcumin may prevent rat primary hepatocytes from ethanol-induced oxidative damage probably by reducing GSH consumption, improving antioxidant enzyme activity and inhibiting lipid peroxidation reaction in dose-dependent and time-dependent manner.