Impact of curcumin on human monocytes (U937 cells) exposed to oxidative stress

Oxidative stress as a result of cigarette smoking is an important etiological factor in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a chronic steroid-insensitive inflammatory disease of the airways. The activity of the transcriptional co-repressor Histone deacetylase-2 (HDAC2) is dramatically reduced in COPD and cells exposed to oxidative stress or cigarette smoke. Moreover, curcumin (diferuloylmethane), a dietary polyphenol, at concentrations upto 1uM specifically restores cigarette smoke extract (CSE)- or oxidative stress- impaired HDAC2 activity. The aim of this study was to therefore identify any links through those gene sets that are affected by oxidative stress and subsequent treatment with curcumin in order to determine whether or not this could explain the impact of curcumin on restoration of oxidant impaired HDAC2 transcriptional co-repressor activity.

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Meja KK, Rajendrasozhan S, Adenuga D, Biswas SK, Sundar IK, Spooner G, Marwick JA, Chakravarty P, Fletcher D, Whittaker P, Megson IL, Kirkham PA, Rahman I