IMMUNOMODULATORY EFFECT OF CURCUMA LONGA IN MICE

Abstract

This study was designed to find out the effect of oral inoculation of aqueous extract of Curcuma Longa at two doses (1 and 5) mg/ kg body weight daily for 4 weeks on the immune response of Balb/c mice by estimating of serum concentration of interleukin-2 (IL-2) , interleukin-4 (IL-4), interleukin-10 (IL-10) and interferon gamma (INF-γ) using ELISA test. The present results revealed that significant increase (p<0.05) in the values of both of IL-2 (133.80 pg/ml and 181.60 pg/ml, respectively) and INF-γ concentration (789.50 pg/ml and 1131.50 pg/ml, respectively) in sera of both mice groups treated with two concentration of Curcuma longa 1and 5 mg/kg body weight, respectively in comparison with control group. On the other hand significant elevation of IL-4 (91.00 pg/ml and 64.40 pg/ml, respectively) and IL-10 concentration (50.10 pg/ml and 42.70 pg/ml, respectively) in sera of both mice groups treated with Curcuma longa 1 and 5 mg/kg body weight in comparison with control group. IL-2 and INF-γ were used for detection of TH1 response, while IL-4 and IL-10 used for TH2 response detection. However, both mice groups treated with Curcuma longa (1 and 5 mg/kg) showed increase in the activity of TH1 in comparison with TH2. The ratio of IL-2/IL-10 (4.253) for mice group treated with 5 mg/kg body weight Curcuma longa, and INF-γ/IL-4 (17.659), and these rates were higher than the ratio of IL T 2/IL-10 (2.671) and INF-γ/IL-4 (8.676) for mice group treated with 1 mg/kg body weight