Curcumin Alleviates Hepatic Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury by Inhibiting Neutrophil Extracellular Traps Formation

Hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is a common innate immune-mediated sterile inflammatory response in liver transplantation and liver tumor resection. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) can aggravate liver injury and activates innate immune response in the process of liver IRI. However, Curcumin (Cur) can reverse this damage and reduce NETs formation. Nevertheless, the specific regulatory mechanism is still unclear in liver IRI. This study aimed to explore the potential mechanisms that how does Cur alleviate hepatic IRI by inhibits NETs production and develop novel treatment regimens.

We established a hepatic IRI model by subjecting C57BL/6J mice to 60 min of ischemia, followed by reperfusion for 2 h, 6 h, 12 h, and 24 h respectively. Subsequently, we were separated into 5 groups, namely the I/R group, Cur group, DNase-1 group, Cur + DNase1 group and sham operation group. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST), Hematoxylin-eosin staining, immunofluorescence, and TUNEL analysis were applied to assess liver injury degree and NETs levels. Western blot assay was used to detect the protein levels of apoptosis-related proteins and MEK pathway proteins.

Cur could alleviate hepatic IRI by inhibiting the generation of NETs via suppressing the MEK/ERK pathway. In addition, this study also revealed that DNase-1 is vital for alleviating hepatic IRI by reducing the generation of NETs.

Cur combined with DNase-1 was more effective than the two drugs administered alone in alleviating hepatic IRI by inhibiting the generation of NETs. These results also suggested that curcumin combined with DNase-1 was a potential therapeutic strategy to mitigate hepatic IRI.