• Da-Tong Ju, Bruce Chi-Kang Tsai, Maria Angelina Sitorus, Wei-Wen Kuo, Chia-Hua Kuo, Tung-Sheng Chen, Dennis Jine-Yuan Hsieh, Tsung-Jung Ho, Chih-Yang Huang, and Chien-Hao Wang.
• Department of Neurological Surgery, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
• Am. J. Chin. Med. 2022 Jan 1; 50 (5): 1299-1314.

AbstractNeurodegenerative diseases have become increasingly prevalent in the aged population. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that causes systemic inflammation, damaging the neurons. However, only a few treatment options can reduce RA-induced neurodegeneration. This study aimed to evaluate whether adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) pretreated with curcumin could ameliorate RA-induced neurodegenerative illness in an RA rat model. Wistar rats were randomly classified into the following four groups: control, RA, RA + ADSC (1 × 106 cells per rat), and RA + curcumin-pretreated ADSC (1 × 106 cells per rat). After treatment for two months, the effects were specifically evaluated in the brains collected from the rats. Our results demonstrated that the transplantation of curcumin-pretreated ADSCs substantially reduced inflammation and apoptosis in the cortices of RA rats compared to those of other groups. Thus, the combination of ADSCs and curcumin exerts a synergistic effect in enhancing neuronal protection in RA rats. In the future, this combination therapeutic strategy can potentially be used as a novel treatment method to reduce RA-induced neurodegenerative disorders.

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