Our previous study found that curcumin, a major active component of turmeric, could ameliorate ethanol-induced hepatocytes oxidative stress in vitro. The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of curcumin on chronic alcoholic liver disease (ALD) in vivo. Ethanol-exposed (2.4g/kg/day ethanol for the initial 4 weeks and 4g/kg/day for another 2 weeks) Balb/c mice were simultaneously treated with curcumin for 6 weeks. The results showed that curcumin attenuated ethanol-induced histopathological changes of the liver and ameliorated the evident release of cellular alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST). Ethanol exposure resulted in reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, malondialdehyde (MDA) elevation, glutathione (GSH) depletion and antioxidant defense system impairment, which were significantly reversed by curcumin treatment. In conclusion, curcumin provided protection against chronic ALD and the mechanism might be related to the alleviation of oxidative damage.

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