Curcumin alleviates oxidative stress and inhibits apoptosis in diabetic cardiomyopathy via Sirt1‐Foxo1 and PI3K‐Akt signalling pathways

• Published in: Journal of cellular and molecular medicine Vol. 24; no. 21; pp. 12355 - 12367
• Main Authors: Ren, Bin‐cheng, Zhang, Yu‐fei, Liu, Shan‐shan, Cheng, Xiao‐jing, Yang, Xin, Cui, Xiao‐guang, Zhao, Xin‐rui, Zhao, Hui, Hao, Min‐feng, Li, Meng‐dan, Tie, Yuan‐yuan, Qu, Li, Li, Xue‐yi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.11.2020; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: 1-Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase; Acetylation; AKT protein; Antibodies; Apoptosis; Cardiac function; Cardiomyocytes; Cardiomyopathy; Caspase; Curcumin; Diabetes; Diabetes mellitus (non-insulin dependent); Experiments; FOXO1 protein; Glucose; Glucose metabolism; High fat diet; Kinases; Laboratory animals; Malondialdehyde; Metabolism; Original; Oxidative stress; Palmitic acid; Phosphorylation; PI3K‐Akt; Proteins; Signal transduction; Sirt1; SIRT1 protein; Structure-function relationships; Superoxide dismutase; type 2 diabetes; United States > US; apoptosis; Sirt1; type 2 diabetes; PI3K-Akt; oxidative stress; curcumin
• DOI: 10.1111/jcmm.15725
• ISSN: 1582-1838; 1582-4934

Diabetes is a disorder of glucose metabolism, and over 90% are type 2 diabetes. Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is one of the type 2 diabetes complications, usually accompanied by changes in myocardial structure and function, together with cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Our study investigated the effect of curcumin on regulating oxidative stress (OS) and apoptosis in DCM. In vivo, diabetes was induced in an experimental rat model by streptozoticin (STZ) together with high‐glucose and high‐fat (HG/HF) diet feeding. In vitro, H9c2 cardiomyocytes were cultured with high‐glucose and saturated free fatty acid palmitate. Curcumin was orally or directly administered to rats or cells, respectively. Streptozoticin ‐induced diabetic rats showed metabolism abnormalities and elevated markers of OS (superoxide dismutase [SOD], malondialdehyde [MDA], gp91phox, Cyt‐Cyto C), enhanced cell apoptosis (Bax/Bcl‐2, Cleaved caspase‐3, TUNEL‐positive cells), together with reduced Akt phosphorylation and increased Foxo1 acetylation. Curcumin attenuated the myocardial dysfunction, OS and apoptosis in the heart of diabetic rats. Curcumin treatment also enhanced phosphorylation of Akt and inhibited acetylation of Foxo1. These results strongly suggest that apoptosis was increased in the heart of diabetic rats, and curcumin played a role in diabetic cardiomyopathy treatment by modulating the Sirt1‐Foxo1 and PI3K‐Akt pathways.