Abstract
Senescence-related decline of thymus affects immune function in the elderly population and contributes to the prevalence of many relevant diseases like cancer, autoimmune diseases, and other chronic diseases. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic effects of curcumin, an agent that could counter aging, and explored its optimal intake and the alteration of autoimmune regulator (Aire) after curcumin treatment in the D-galactose (D-gal)-induced accelerated aging mice. ICR mice were intraperitoneally injected with D-gal for 8 weeks to establish the accelerated aging model and given curcumin with 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg body weight per day by gavage, respectively, for 6 weeks. It indicated that the D-gal-treated mice developed structural changes in the thymi compared with the control group without D-gal and curcumin treatment. As the supplements of curcumin, it resulted in a restoration of the normal thymic anatomy with an increase of proliferating cells and a reduction of apoptotic cells in the thymi of the D-gal-induced aging model mice. Curcumin administration could also expand the expression level of Aire from mRNA level and protein level. The current study demonstrated that curcumin could ameliorate senescence-related thymus involution via upregulating Aire expression, suggesting that curcumin can rejuvenate senescence-associated alterations of thymus induced by D-gal accumulation.
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The study was supported by the Youth Development Fund from School of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhengzhou University, China (No. JCYXY2016-YQ-05).
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YR Chai and Y Ding conceived the study, designed the survey protocol, and supervised data collection procedures. JH Li drafted the final version of the manuscript; TT Wei, JH Cao, and Guo Li performed the experimental procedures; GH Liu and YK Feng analyzed the data; SN Guo and YR Chai revised the manuscript. All authors contributed to, edited, and approved the final manuscript as submitted. The authors claimed that all data were generated in-house and no paper mill was used.
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Zhengzhou University Medical Ethics Committee approved all experiments and all procedures, and processes in this study were carried out according to the guidelines for the Ethical Care of Experimental Animals (Ethics number: ZZUIRB 2018-017).
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Li, Jh., Wei, Tt., Guo, L. et al. Curcumin protects thymus against D-galactose-induced senescence in mice. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol 394, 411–420 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00210-020-01945-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00210-020-01945-8