Spice in Curry could avoid Liver Damage

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Curcumin, a chemical that give curry its zing, holds promise in prevent or treating liver damage from an advanced form of a condition known as fatty liver disease, new Saint Louis University research suggests. Curcurmin is contained in turmeric, a plant use by the Chinese to create traditional medicines for thousands of years. SLU’s current study highlights its possible in countering an increasingly common kind of fatty liver disease called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Linked to fatness and weight gain, NASH affects 3 to 4 percent of U.S. adults and can lead to a type of liver damage called liver fibrosis and maybe cirrhosis, liver cancer and death.

“My laboratory studies the molecular mechanism of liver fibrosis and is search for natural ways to avoid and treat this liver damage,” said Anping Chen, Ph.D., corresponding creator and director of research in the pathology department of Saint Louis University. “While research in an animal model and human clinical trials are wanted, our study suggests that curcumin may be an effective therapy to treat and avoid liver fibrosis, which is linked with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).” High levels of blood leptin, glucose and insulin are commonly found in human patients with fatness and type 2 diabetes, which might give to NASH-associated liver fibrosis.

Chen’s most current work tested the effect of curcumin on the role of tall levels of leptin in causing liver fibrosis in vitro, or in a controlled lab setting. “Leptin plays a dangerous role in the development of liver fibrosis,” he said. High levels of leptin make active hepatic stellate cells, which are the cells that cause overproduction of the collagen protein, a main feature of liver fibrosis. The researchers found that among other actions, curcumin eliminated the property of leptin on activate hepatic stellate cells, which short circuited the development of liver damage. The findings were published in the September matter of Endocrinology.

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