The effects of co-administration of curcumin and forced exercise on electrophysiological responses in the neuropathic pain model of chronic constriction injury of peripheral nerves in rats

Neuropathic pain intensifies the response to painful and non-painful stimuli. Curcumin is one of the substances that have analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. Also, exercise as a behavioral and non-pharmacological method has beneficial effects on general health under many neuropathic diseases. Also, the combined effect of these two factors on peripheral nerve conduction velocity of the sciatic nerve in patients and animals has been less studied. So, we suggested the study of the preventive effects of combined curcumin and exercise on electrophysiological parameters of the sciatic nerve in the neuropathic pain model of chronic sciatic nerve compression in rats.

80 Male Wistar rats were randomly allocated to 8 groups (n=10). First, neuropathic pain was induced by the chronic constriction injury (CCI) method in the respective groups. To prevent neuropathic pain, two weeks before surgery, forced exercise was started in the exercise group, and after a 5-day recovery period, was performed again for one week until the 14th day of the experiment. After CCI surgery, 60mg/kg curcumin or its vehicle injection was performed in the curcumin and vehicle groups until day 14, and electrophysiological tests of the sural and tibial nerve were performed on day 15.

The results showed that before stabilizing neuropathic pain on day 14 of the experiment, co-administration of curcumin and forced exercise could prevent sural and tibial nerve conduction velocity (SNCV and MNCV) loss compared to the CCI group.

The findings of this study suggest that co-administration of curcumin and forced exercise may prevent electrophysiological disorders of the sciatic nerve, before the complete stabilizing of peripheral neuropathy.