Effects of dietary curcumin or N-acetylcysteine on NF-kappaB activity and contractile performance in ambulatory and unloaded murine soleus

Background: Unloading of skeletal muscle causes atrophy and loss of contractile function. In part, this response is believed to be mediated by the transcription factor nuclear factor-kappa B (NFκB). Both curcumin, a component of the spice turmeric, and N-acetylcysteine (NAC), an antioxidant, inhibit activation of NF-κB by inflammatory stimuli, albeit by different mechanisms. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that dietary curcumin or NAC supplementation would inhibit unloading-induced NF-κB activity in skeletal muscle and thereby protect muscles against loss of mass and function caused by prolonged unloading. Methods: We used hindlimb suspension to unload the hindlimb muscles of adult mice. Animals had free access to drinking water or drinking water supplemented with 1% NAC and to standard laboratory diet or diet supplemented with 1% curcumin. For 11 days, half the animals in each dietary group were suspended by the tail (unloaded) and half were allowed to ambulate freely. Results: Unloading caused a 51–53% loss of soleus muscle weight and cross-sectional area relative to freely-ambulating controls. Unloading also decreased total force and force per cross-sectional area developed by soleus. Curcumin supplementation decreased NF-κB activity measured in peripheral tissues of ambulatory mice by gel shift analysis. In unloaded animals, curcumin supplementation did not inhibit NF-κB activity or blunt the loss of muscle mass in soleus. In contrast, NAC prevented the increase in NF-κB activity induced by unloading but did not prevent losses of muscle mass or function. Conclusion: In conclusion, neither dietary curcumin nor dietary NAC prevents unloading-induced skeletal muscle dysfunction and atrophy, although dietary NAC does prevent unloading induced NF-κB activation. Published: 26 August 2005 Nutrition & Metabolism 2005, 2:20 doi:10.1186/1743-7075-2-20 Received: 21 June 2005 Accepted: 26 August 2005 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1743-7075/2/20 © 2005 Farid et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Nutrition & Metabolism 2005, 2:20 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1743-7075/2/20