Revista de Bioanálise e Biomedicina

Efficacy of Curcumin in Reducing Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in High Fat Diet-Fed Rats

Abstract

El-Sayed M El-Habibi, Azza M El-Wakf and Abdullah Mogall

This study aimed to explore mechanisms connecting obesity with incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) based on the changes in inflammatory response and hematological system. Also, to evaluate the role of curcumin in these changes. Obesity was induced by feeding male rats high fat diet (HFD) daily for three months, whereas curcumin (20 mg/kg b.wt) was given orally for the same period. Induction of obesity caused significant increase in the body weight gain with elevation in the levels of total lipids, total cholesterol and triglycerides in serum, aorta and heart. Shifts toward high inflammatory response, as evidenced by increased serum levels of tumor necrosis factoralpha (TNF-α) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were also observed. This goes with further elevation in total leucocytes, monocytes and lymphocytes, accompanied by decreased nitric oxide (NO) level in serum, aorta and cardiac tissue of
the HFD- group. A significant reduction in RBCs count, Hb content, MCV and MCHC %, with elevation in the platelet count and fibrinogen content were also recorded. However, curcumin administration to HFD- fed rats seemed to reduce the increase in body weight and to alleviate all the above mentioned changes. Thus, curcumin could serve as therapeutic agent for protecting against HFD-related CVD.