Preliminary Study Of The Effects And Mechanisms Of Curcumin Gavage On Gastric Emptying Disorder Induced By Cisplatin In Mice

Background Curcumin, a product from zingiberaceae plants, is widely used in daily food processing as natural pigment additives. In recent years, some studies have shown that curcumin has several kinds of pharmacological activities such as anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidation, anti-tumor and so on. Previous research of our laboratory has shown that, when combined with chemotherapy medicines, curcumin not only exerted the adjuvant anti-tumor effect, but also reduced the damage of liver, kidney and improved the gastrointestinal peristalsis in mice induced by cisplatin.Objective To investigate the effect of curcumin gavage for different days on the dysfunction of gastric emptying in mice induced by cisplatin. Furtherly, to explore whether the effect of curcumin worked through antioxidance or ameliorating the function of ICCs.Method Adult male Kunming mice were randomly divided into 9 groups: control, cisplatin, curcumin, cisplatin+curcumin 1 day, 5 days, 10 days, 15 days, 20 days and 30 days. There were eight mice in each group. The mice were disposed of curcumin(200mg/kg/d) by gavage, for the number of days needed individually. The other groups were gavaged with menstrum solution. Intraperitoneal injection of cisplatin(2mg/kg/d) was started from 5th day before the execution. The other groups were injected with menstrum solution. Weight changes were measured before and after the injection of cisplatin. After 24 hours for the last gavage, the gastric residual rates of mice in each group were detected. Then the mice were dislocated to death, and the stomach tissues of mice were cut out. The levels of malondialdehyde(MDA) and superoxide dismutase(SOD) of stomach were detected. The protein and m RNA levels of stem cell factor(SCF) and c-kit were assessed by western blot and RT-PCR analysis individually. All data are presented as means ± SD. To compare data among groups of animals, one-way analysis of variance(one-way ANOVA) by SPSS 17.0 was employed. Differences were considered statistically significant at P < 0.05.Results The body weight of mouse in each group was reduced significantly after cisplatin injection. The reduction of body weight of mice was alleviated by curcumin gavage for 10~30 days(P<0.05). The gastric residual rate of mice was increased obviously after cisplatin injection(P<0.05). Curcumin gavage for 10~30 days decreased the gastric residual rate of mice(P<0.05). Above effects of curcumin in 10~30 days groups had no obvious difference(P>0.05). There was no significant improvement in cisplatin+curcumin 1 or 5 days group(P>0.05). The contents of MDA and the activities of SOD had no obvious changes among each group(P>0.05). The contents of protein and m RNA of SCF and C-kit in cisplatin group were reduced significantly(P<0.05). Curcumin gavage for 10~30 days improved the expression of SCF and c-kit(P<0.05), while there was no significant improvement in cisplatin+curcumin 1 or 5 days group(P>0.05).Conclusion(1) Cisplatin can reduce the gastric food emptying, which may be relevant to ICCs damage instead of oxidative damage in stomach.(2) Curcumin gavage for more than ten days can ameliorate the gastric emptying disorder of mice induced by cisplatin, which may be through the ameliorated function of ICCs, but not the antioxidation in stomach.