Background: Crhon’s disease (CD) is a multifactorial chronic inflammatory disease that affect the gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus. The effect of various drugs used to treat CD was investigated.
Aim: The aim of the present study is to evaluate the possible therapeutic effect of curcumin on the severity of CD induced by intra-colonic instillation of NaOH in rats.
Methods: Adult male Wister rats were assigned into five groups. Group I was kept as normal animals without treatment. Group II, III, IV and V were subjected to the induction of Crhon’s disease by intra-colonic injection of 2ml NaOH (6.25%). Group II received 0.9% saline, group III received dexamethasone at dose of (1mg/kg ), group IV and V received intraperitoneal curcumin (40,100mg/kg) once daily starting 2 days before NaOH infusion until the end of the experiment at day 15 post induction. Assessment of the inflammatory response was done by histology and measurement of interleukin-1β (IL1), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), myeloperoxidase activity (MPO) and reduced glutathione (GSH) levels in colon mucosa.
Results: High dose of curcumin significantly decreased colonic IL-1β, TNF-α, and MPO activity and increased GSH concentration. Moreover, curcumin attenuated the macroscopic and histopathological changes induced by NaOH.
Conclusion: These results suggest that curcumin may be effective in the treatment of CD through its scavenging properties on the oxygen-derived free radicals.