Protective effects of Curcumin against metal mixture-induced lipid peroxidation, oxidative stress and heart damage in rats

Free radical formation is triggered by environmental pollution, radiation, contaminated water and pesticides. These increased radicals can cause many diseases such as cardiovascular and gastrointestinal diseases, infertility, respiratory and excretory system disorders. Our study was planned to investigate the cardioprotective effect of curcumin (CUR), which has known antioxidant and cytoprotective properties, against heart damage caused by heavy metal mixture (HMM) consisting of Cadmium (Cd) + Arsenic (As).For this purpose, male Spraque-Dawley rats were divided into 5 groups 6 animals in each. These; Group I control, Group II 0.44+5.55 mg/kg Cd–As (HMM), Group III 100 mg/kg CUR, Group IV 100 mg/kgCUR + HMM, Group V 200 mg/kg CUR + HMM. The hearts of rats killed by intracardiac blood draw under anesthesia were taken for histopathological analysis.While severe congestion, inflammation and hyaline degeneration were observed in the HMM group only, histological damage was significantly reduced in the HMM + CUR group, especially in the 200 mg/kg CUR + HMM group.In addition, while serum creatine kinase (CK-MB) and troponin T levels increased significantly in the HMM group, they almost reached control levels in the groups administered CUR together with HMM, especially in the group given 200 mg/kg CUR.Our data showed that CUR (especially 200 mg/kg) significantly improved most of the biochemical and histopathological parameters.In this study, it was concluded that CUR may have therapeutic and prophylactic value in the treatment of myocardial infarction.