Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 6, 2026
A Rat Lung Transplantation Model of Warm Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury: Optimizations to Improve Outcomes
Published on: October 28, 2021
Preventive effects of curcumin and dexamethasone on lung transplantation-associated lung injury in rats
Jiayuan Sun1, Weigang Guo, Yong Ben
1Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR China.
Objective:
To investigate potential effects of curcumin or dexamethasone on lung transplantation-associated lung injury.
Design:
Prospective, randomized, controlled study.
Setting:
Research laboratory.
Subjects:
Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats.
Interventions:
Sham-operated rats were used as time-matched controls. Experimental rats were subjected to unilateral orthotopic lung transplantation with 4 hrs of cold ischemia followed by 2 hrs (or 24 hrs) of reperfusion. Animals were randomly assigned to vehicle-, curcumin-, or dexamethasone-treated groups.
Measurements And Main Results:
Transplantation-associated lung injury was characterized by an increased alveolar-capillary permeability and myeloperoxidase activity and decreased levels of arterial oxygen tension/inspired oxygen concentration ratio. Pretreatment with curcumin and dexamethasone significantly prevented barrier disruption, lung edema, tissue inflammation, and decreased PaO2 at the early stage of posttransplantation. Nuclear factor-kappaB in transplanted lungs was activated, accompanied by an increase in messenger RNA levels and protein content of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-6, and matrix metalloproteinase-9 in lung graft. Those changes were prevented by pretreatment with curcumin and dexamethasone.
Conclusions:
Curcumin can be an alternative therapy for protecting lung transplantation-associated injury by suppressing nuclear factor-kappaB-mediated expression of inflammatory genes.
