Background: Pancreatic islet transplantation has been reported as an appropriate method for treatment of type I diabetes patients, however there are strong indications that cytokine and chemokines secreted from transplanted islets play an important role in islet graft rejection in different stage post-transplantation. The NF-kB signaling pathway is activated in response to the stress resulted from isolation and purification process of pancreatic islets. Secretion and release of inflammatory mediators, including MCP-1, result from activation of this pathway which plays important part in activation of inflammatory processes accelerating graft rejection.
Methods: This study was performed to examine the effect of curcumin on secretion of inflammatory mediators and function of pancreatic islets.
Results: We observed that curcumin significantly decreased MCP-1 release from mouse islets compared to the control group and had no effect on function of pancreatic islets. Conclusion: Investigating the stimulatory signals leading to production and secretion of inflammatory mediators from pancreatic islets and discovering their underlying mechanisms will be useful in finding new therapeutic interventions for blocking inflammatory pathways and improvement in outcome of islet cell transplantation.

Keywords: Pancreatic Islets transplantation, MCP-1, Curcumin

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