Curcumin (CMN) has been well studied due to its economic and medical importance.
Traditional Egyptian Medicine claims the use of its powder against biliary disorders,
anorexia, coryza, cough, diabetic wounds, hepatic disorder, rheumatism and sinusitis.
The current study was designed to examine the possible beneficial effect of CMN in
preventing the acute renal failure and related oxidative stress caused by chronic
administration of cyclosporine (CsA) in rats. The study included two experiments, the
first one was carried out to follow up the changes that could occur in kidney function
as a result of cyclosporine (CsA) administration. Cyclosporine administration exerted
significant (P< 0.01) elevation of serum urea, creatinine, potassium (K),
parathormone (PTH), malondialdehyde (MDA) and asymmetrical dimethylarginine
(ADMA). Meanwhile, cyclosporine treatment exerted significant (P< 0.01) decline in
the level of serum sodium (Na) and total nitric oxide (NO), the content of kidney
reduced glutathione (GSH) and the activities of glutathione peroxidase (G
px), catalase
(CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) as compared with their corresponding
normal rats. In the second experiment, the nephritic rats were treated with curcumin
and remarkable corrections were occurred in all previous parameters. Thus, the
current investigation was designed to examine the possible beneficial effect of CMN
in preventing the renal failure and related oxidative stress caused by administration
of CsA in rats.