Curcumin reduces acute kidney injury and ferroptosis

What is it about?

Until now it was thought that renal cells died from apoptosis (regulated cell death) or necrosis (unregulated cell death) during acute renal failure. However, there are other types of cell death that could also be involved during this type of damage, such as ferroptosis. Our results are the first to show the important role of ferroptosis in renal damage associated with rhabdomyolysis as well as a possible treatment based on curcumin administration.

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Photo by Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash

Photo by Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Our results show that there is a new type of cell death, called ferroptosis, which is the main responsible for the loss of renal cells during acute renal injury associated with rhabdomyolysis. Ferroptosis is a form of regulated cell death, caused by an accumulation of iron in the cells, increased lipid peroxidation and a decrease in glutathione levels. In addition, data from this study reveal that curcumin treatment, a potent natural antioxidant, is capable of decreasing kidney damage, oxidative stress, inflammation and cell death mediated by ferroptosis during acute renal failure associated with rhabdomyolysis.

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