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

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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