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Curcumin promotes oxidative stress, apoptosis and autophagy in H9c2 rat cardiomyoblasts

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Abstract

Background

Curcumin, a polyphenol derived from Curcuma longa, has some adverse effects on heart; however, its toxic effects on cardiac cells are poorly understood.

Objective

To evaluate the toxicity of curcumin on H9c2 rat cardiomyoblasts. To this, H9c2 cells were exposed to different concentrations of curcumin and proliferation, viability, cell cycle, oxidative stress, mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm), death and autophagy were evaluated.

Results

Curcumin caused concentration-dependent inhibition of H9c2 cells proliferation and viability. A higher sub-G1 population was observed in cells treated with curcumin, which was related with phosphatidylserine translocation and increase of activated caspase-9, indicating apoptotic death. Curcumin induced oxidative stress and decreased ΔΨm causing mitochondrial dysfunction. Additionally, it promoted autophagy, revealed by higher LC3B and beclin-1 protein expression and mitophagy.

Conclusion

Curcumin exhibited toxic effects in cardiac cells and further studies are required to validate its therapeutic potential and use as anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant agent in the cardiovascular system.

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Abbreviations

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

H2DCFDA:

2,7-Dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate

Rh123:

Rhodamine 123

ΔΨm:

Mitochondrial membrane potential

LC3:

Microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3

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Acknowledgements

We thank CONACyT for its funding. Zaira Colin-Val was supported by doctoral fellowship number 570169 at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Mexico.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Fisiología, Instituto Nacional de Cardiología “Ignacio Chávez”, Juan Badiano No. 1, Colonia Sección 16, Tlalpan, 14080, Ciudad de México, México

    Iván Zepeda-Quiróz, Helen Sánchez-Barrera, Zaira Colín-Val & Rebeca López-Marure

  2. Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Ciudad de México, México

    Iván Zepeda-Quiróz

  3. Departamento de Bioquímica, Instituto Nacional de Cardiología “Ignacio Chávez”, Ciudad de México, México

    Diana Xochiquetzal Robledo-Cadena & Sara Rodríguez-Enríquez

Authors
  1. Iván Zepeda-Quiróz
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  2. Helen Sánchez-Barrera
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  3. Zaira Colín-Val
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  4. Diana Xochiquetzal Robledo-Cadena
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  5. Sara Rodríguez-Enríquez
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  6. Rebeca López-Marure
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Contributions

HS-B: investigation, methodology, validation. IZ-Q: investigation, methodology, validation. ZC-V: writing–original draft, investigation, software, methodology. RL-M: conceptualization, validation, visualization, resources, funding acquisition, project administration, supervision, writing—review and editing. SR-E: methodology, supervision, writing—review and editing. DXR-C: methodology.

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Correspondence to Rebeca López-Marure.

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Zepeda-Quiróz, I., Sánchez-Barrera, H., Colín-Val, Z. et al. Curcumin promotes oxidative stress, apoptosis and autophagy in H9c2 rat cardiomyoblasts. Mol. Cell. Toxicol. 16, 441–453 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13273-020-00101-w

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