Curcumin inhibits the proliferation of rat airway smooth muscle cells

Objective To investigate the effect of curcumin on the proliferation of airway smooth muscle cells(ASMCs).Methods Primary ASMCs of rats were cultured.The absorbance(A450) value of ASMCs with treatment with platelet-derived growth factor(PDGF) in the presence or absence curcumin were detected by CCK-8 kits to abserve the proliferation induced by PDGF and the antiproliferation induced by curcumin.The levels of ERK1/2 protein were determined by western blotting.ResultsCompared with control group(1.04±0.12), the absorbance(A450) value of 10 ng/ mL PDGF group(1.16±0.14) and 50 ng/ mL PDGF group(1.30±0.15) both were increased significantly after treatment with PDGF at 2 days(P0.01).After incubation with curcumin at 12, 24 and 36 hours, compared with control group, the average cell inhibition rates of 11.25 μmol/L group(21.57%, 43.55% and 65.99%), 16.88 μmol/L group(39.64%, 57.44% and 77.80%) and 25.31 μmol/L group(44.50%, 53.68% and 92.68%) were increased significantly(P0.05).The levels of ERK1/2 protein were significantly decreased at 20, 40 and 60 minutes after treatment curcumin(25 μmol/L) with PDGF(25 ng/mL).ConclusionsThe proliferation of ASMCs was inhibited by curcumin, and this may be ralated to inhibition of activation of ERK signaling pathway.