Evaluation of the protective effects of curcumin and nanocurcumin against lung injury induced by sub-acute exposure to paraquat in rats

Abstract

The aim of the current study is comparison the protective effects of curcumin and nanocurcumin against lung injury induced by sub-acute exposure with paraquat (PQ) through modulation of oxidative stress and gene expression. Oxidative stress biomarkers and genes expression were assessed by biochemical and RT-PCR analysis. Histopathological evaluation was performed by H&E staining. The results demonstrate that nanocurcumin to be superior to curcumin in protective effects on PQ-induced changes in mentioned factors. We found nanocurcumin had significantly more protective effect than curcumin to prevent the development of PQ-induced lung injury most probably via modulation of oxidative stress and gene expression.

Keywords:

• Curcumin
• nanocurcumin
• paraquat
• oxidative stress
• fibrosis
• lung

Ethical considerations

The study design was approved by the Ethics Committee Guidelines of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences (Res: IR.UMSHA.REC.1396.268).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from Vice Chancellor of Research and Technology of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences for student pharm thesis [9603231928].