• Zhi-Jun Zhang, Lin-Xia Zhao, De-Li Cao, Xin Zhang, Yong-Jing Gao, and Chunlin Xia.
• Department of Anatomy & Cytoneurobiology Unit, Medical College, Soochow University, Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou, China.
• Cell. Mol. Neurobiol. 2012 Aug 1; 32 (6): 1003-10.

AbstractThe important role of neuroinflammation in many chronic and acute pathological conditions of the central nervous system is widely recognized. Curcumin is a major component of turmeric and reportedly has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects. This study investigated the inhibitory effect of curcumin on lipopolysacharide (LPS)-induced chemokine CCL2 (or monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, MCP-1) production and whether the effect is mediated by mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) in the rat astrocytoma cell C6. We observed that LPS (1 μg/ml) induced the upregulation of CCL2 mRNA and protein in C6. Treatment with curcumin (2.5, 10, and 25 μM) decreased the expression of CCL2 mRNA and protein in a dose-dependent manner under treatment with LPS. Additionally, the c-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) inhibitor (SP600125) dose-dependently inhibited LPS-induced CCL2 upregulation, whereas the MAPK kinase (MEK) inhibitor (PD98059) only had a mild effect and the p38 MAPK inhibitor (SB203580) had no effect. Finally, western blot showed that LPS induced rapid JNK activation and curcumin reduced LPS-induced phosphoJNK (pJNK) expression at 30 min after LPS stimulation. These data suggest that the anti-neuroinflammatory effect of curcumin relates to the downregulation of CCL2 expression through the JNK pathway in astrocytoma cells, which indicates a possible benefit from the use of curcumin in the treatment of neuroinflammation-associated disorders.

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