the studies of protective effects of curcumin on retinoic acid toxicity in white mice

introduction: retinoic acid (ra), one of the syntetic vitamin a derivatives which has been frequently used as a drug to treat face acne, is known to have specific side effects on the testis, liver, and spleen, it is also known as an oxidative agent in high doses. therefore, we have tried to find a compound which would decrease its side effects. curcumin which is found in the rhizome of turmeric (curcuma longa) is known to have antioxidant, antiinflamation and antibacterial properties. it has also shown that this chemical can decrease lipid proxidation and scavenge free radicals. in order to investigate possible protective interaction between curcumin as a strong antioxidant with side effects of ra as an oxidant agent, we conduct a series of experiments involving dietary application of ra and curcumin with white mice. materials and methods: in this research we have chosen 6 weeks old male mice of nmri strain weighting 262 grams. the mice were divided into five experimental groups. the first group were fed only with normal diet (as control) 1, but the other four groups were fed with normal diet plus olive oil (as solvent) 2, (retinoic acid) 3, (curcumin) 4 and (curcumin + retinoic acid) 5. we administrated 10 mg/kg of curcumin and 30 mg/kg of retinoic acid for eight days by gavage method. following dissection of mice and collection blood various parameters including cholesterol, triglycerides, ldh and alp were analyzed with laboratory kits. the analysis of the variance and tukey's test were used to compare the statistical difference among the parameters. results: results obtained from these experiment indicated that ra increased the amount of cholesterol and triglyceride by 23.3% (p<0.001) and 3.11% (p<0.05) respectively compared with the control group. similarly, the amount ot ldh and alp activity enzymes occuring in blood plasma increased by 25.8% and 42.4% (p<0.001) respectively compared with solvent group (control). dietary uptake of curcumin has decreased the amount of cholesterol and triglyceride by 12.2% (p<0.01) and 25.2% (p<0.01) respectively. mice adminstered with dietary curcumin have demonstrated a marked decreased in ldh and alp activities by 11.2% and 15.7% (p<0.05) respectively. conclusion: it was obsereved that the cytotoxicity of retinoic acid had been decreased markedly by curcumin. therefore anatioxidant role of curcumin can decrease side effects of retinoic acid. it can be concluded that curcumin can be used for treatment against ra side effects.