Curcumin Attenuates Allergic Airway Inflammation of Young Mice through Inhibiting the Activation of p38 MAPK and AKT / 中山大学学报(医学科学版)

ABSTRACT

[Objective]To investigate the effects of dietary curcumin on the prevention and treatment of allergic airway inflamma?tion in young mice for simulating the allergic airway inflammation of 3-12 years old children.[Methods]The 4 weeks young female BALB/c mice were randomly divided into three groups (n=8) Control group, Model group and curcumin group (800 mg curcumin/ kg diet). 24 h after the last OVA challenge, the symptoms of mice in each group were observed, the inflammatory cells in the bronchoalve?olar lavage fluid (BALF) were measured, various kinds of blood cells were detected, the inflammatory cells around the peribronchial ar?eas stained by H&E and the goblet cell hyperplasia in the lungs stained by PAS were analyzed. Additionally, the IL-4, IL-5, IL-13 in the BALF and the total IgE level in the plasma were detected by ELISA, and the activation of p38 MAPK and AKT was measured by western blot.[Results]The mice of model group showed the symptoms of allergic airway inflammation, such as repeatedly scratched the noses, showed nodding breath, notably, the weight of model mice was decreased significantly during the OVA challenge phase, while the symptoms mentioned above were alleviated in curcurmin group. The blood cells test found that the curcumin could in?hibit the elevation of the eosinophils significantly (P<0.05). Dietary curcumin treatment significantly decreased the inflammatory cells in the BALF and peribronchial areas, and the IL-4, IL-5, IL-13 levels in the BALF were significantly inhibited (P<0.05). The goblet cell hyperplasia was attenuated by curcumin treatment, and the dietary curcumin inhibited the activation of p38 MAPK and AKT sig?naling.[Conclusions]Dietary curcumin can alleviate the allergic airway inflammation of young mice, which may through inhibiting the transduction of p-38 MAPK and AKT signaling.