The Effect of Eight Weeks of Curcumin Supplementation on the Expression of Some Regulatory Genes of Atrophic Processes in the Heart Tissue of Fatty Adult Fatty Rats

Obesity causes heart muscle atrophy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of curcumin supplement on expression of PGC1α, FoxO3a, MuRF1, MAFbx as regulators of cardiac muscle atrophy of rats.

12 male Sprague Dawley rats were divided into two groups: obese (n = 6) and curcumin supplement (n = 6) after eight weeks of using high fat diet. The rats received curcumin for eight weeks and 150 mg / kg daily. The expression of genes was performed using Real Time-PCR technique. The expression of genes was calculated using the 2-∆∆CTmethod. One-way ANOVA was used to determine the significance of the variables among the study groups.

The administration of curcumin resulted in a significant reduction in the expression of genes of FoxO3a (P = 0.008), MAFbx (P = 0.02), MuRF1 (P = 0.001), and a significant increase in PGC1α gene expression (P = 0.004).

Probably, administration of curcumin can be used to suppress heart muscle atrophy due to obesity by controlling the muscle atrophy pathway.