Turkish Society of Physiological Sciences, 46th Turkish Physiology Congress 8 – 10 October 2021 Online, Ankara, Turkey, 8 - 10 October 2021, pp.65
The Effect of Curcumin Administration on Oxidative Stress in Thymus Tissue and Plasma in Aging.
Aslı Nur Bahar1, Arzu Keskin Aktan2, Kazime Gonca Akbulut1
1Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Physiology Ankara, Türkiye
2Afyonkarahisar University of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Physiology Afyon, Türkiye
AIM: Aging has been shown to affect cell immune function in rats by significantly reducing the thymus index. One of the mechanisms that cause thymus involution is oxidative stress. Curcumin is a polyphenol widely used all over the world, especially in Asia, with its antioxidant, immunomodulatory and antiapoptotic properties in our study, MDA, TBARS (malondialdehyde, thiobarbituric acid reactive products) and GSH, which is one of the antioxidant parameters, in thymus tissue and plasma of curcumin (CUR) application in aging. We aimed to investigate the sulfhydryl compounds levels and their effects on thymus involution.
METHODS: Using a total of 24 male Wistar rats (young: 3 months old, old: 22 months old): Young-Control (n=6), Young-Curcumin (n=6), Old-Control (n=6), Old-Curcumin (n=6) groups were formed. Intraperitoneal injections of the control (4DMSO+PBS) and Curcumin (30 mg/kg) groups were continued for 21 days and the tissues were isolated. MDA and GSH levels in tissue and plasma were measured by spectrophotometer. One-way ANOVA (post-hoc LSD) and Pearson correlation test were used in the istatistical method p<0,05.
RESULTS: While aging increased MDA level in thymus tissue, it decreased GSH level and thymus weight/body weight (thymus index) and plasma sulfhydryl value. Curcumin administration significantly decreased the MDA value in aged rats compared to the control group, while it significantly increased the GSH level in young rats. A positive correlation was observed between thymus tissue GSH level and plasma sulfhydryl level. Thymus index was positively correlated with tissue GSH level and negatively correlated with plasma MDA level.
CONCLUSION: The decrease in the thymus index in aging and its correlation with tissue GSH suggest that antioxidant defense may play a role in thymus involution and Curcumin application with its antioxidant properties can be used in regenerative therapy.
This study was supported by the Scientific and Technical Research of Türkiye (Project # 3001-216S258).
Keywords: Aging, Thymus, Curcumin, Oxidative Stress, Thymus Index.