Skip to main content
Log in

Effect of curcumin on immune function of mice

  • Published:
Current Medical Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

To investigate the effect of curcumin on immune function of mice, the effect of curcumin was examined on the proliferation of spleen lymphocytes of mice and the function of phagocytosis of peritoneal macrophage by using MTT test and the expression of the nucleoprotein of NFκB p65 was determined in spleen lymphocytes by employing Western Blot. Our results showed that curcumin could enhance the phagocytosis of peritoneal macrophages. Lowdose curcumin could upregulate the proliferation of spleen lymphocytes of mice, and highdose curcumin could suppress the proliferation of spleen lymphocytes. Curcumin could suppress the expression of NFκB p65. Our study suggested that curcumin can regulate immune function of mice in a dosedependent manner. The possible underlying mechanism might be its ability to suppress the activity of NFκB p65.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Pharmacopeia Committee of the People’s Republic of China eds. Pharmacopeia of the People’s Republic of China (Chinese). Beijing: Publishing Company of Chemistry and Industry, 2000, 218

    Google Scholar 

  2. Bian X Y, Yang M Y, Zhang Y. The application of improved MTT colorimetric assay to measured the proliferation of lymphocytes. J Jilin Med College (Chinese), 1997, 17(2):28

    Google Scholar 

  3. Zhao H, Gu D W, Zhang S Jet al. In vitro study of Biola Yedoensis Makino decoetion on regulating immunocyte functions in mice. J Fujian College TCM (Chinese), 2003, 13(2):27

    Google Scholar 

  4. Zhao H H. The effect of P substance on regulation of the function of murine peritoneal macrophages. J Immune China (Chinese), 1989, 5(2):75

    Google Scholar 

  5. Dignam J D, Lebovitz R M, Roeder R G. Accurate transcription initiation by RNA polymerase II in a solute extract from isolated mammaliannuclei. Nucleic Acid Res, 1983, 11:1475

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Baeurele P A, Henkel T. Function and activation of NFκB in the immune system. Annu Rev Immunol, 1994, 12:141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Bielak Z A, Koronkiewicz M, Skierski Jet al. Effect of curcumin on the apoptosis of rodent and human non-proliferating and proliferating lymphoid cells. Nut Cancer, 2000, 38:131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Churchill M, Chadburn A, Bilinski R Tet al. Inhibition of intestinal tumors by curcumin is associated with changes in the intestinal immune cell profil. J Surg Res, 2000, 89(2):169

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Ammon H P, Wahl M A. Pharmacology of Curcuma longa. Plant Med, 1991, 57:1

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Gao X H, Jarret K, Jiang Het al. Immunomodulatory activity of curcumin: suppression of lymphocyte proliferation, development of cellmediated cytotoxicity, and cytokine production in vitro. Biochem Pharmacol, 2004, 68:51

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Natrajan C, Bright J J. Curcumin inhibits experimental allergic encephalomyelitis by blocking IL12 signaling through januskinaseSTAT pathway in T lymphocytes. J Immunol, 2002, 169:6506

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Bharti A C, Donato N, Singh Set al. Curcumin (difeuloylmethane) downregulates the constitutive activation of nuclear factor κB and IkBa kinase in human multiple myeloma cells, leading to suppression of proliferation and induction of apoptosis. Blood, 2003, 101:1053

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Mukhopadyay A, Banerjee S, Stafford L Jet al. Curcumin induced suppression of cell proliferation correlates with downregulation of cyclin D1 expression and CDK4 mediated retnoblastoma protein phosphorylation. Oncogene, 2002, 21:8852

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Singh S L, Aggarwal B B. Activation of transcription factor NFkB is suppressed by curcumin (diferuloylmethane). J Biol Chem, 1995, 270:24995

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Wo X D, Qiu H X, Gao C Xet al. Toxicity of curcumin acting for long period. J Zhejiang College TCM (Chinese), 2000, 24(1):61

    Google Scholar 

  16. Cheng AL, Hsu C H, Lin J Ket al. Phase I clinical trial of curcumin, a hemopreventive agent, in patients with highrisk or premalignant lesions. Anticancer Res, 2001, 21(4B):2895

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

LI Xinjian, male, born in 1969, M.D., Ph.D.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Xinjian, L., Xiaocheng, L. Effect of curcumin on immune function of mice. Current Medical Science 25, 137–140 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02873559

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02873559

Key words

Navigation