Pahl, Jessica 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4821-1387
(2016)
Curcumin use in the attenuation of diet-induced metabolic syndrome in rats.
Honours thesis,
University of Southern Queensland.
(Unpublished)
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Text (Whole Thesis)
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Abstract
Metabolic syndrome is the clustering of a multitude of cardiometabolic symptoms including central obesity, hypertension, insulin resistance, chronic low-grade inflammation and dyslipidaemia. Prevalence of metabolic syndrome and obesity is rapidly increasing worldwide, which has prompted extensive research into discovering new treatment approaches to prevent the growth of this epidemic. The objective for this study was to determine the effectiveness of orally administered low (5 mg/kg/day) and high (100 mg/kg/day) doses of curcumin in attenuating symptoms of diet-induced metabolic syndrome in rats. The rat model of obesity which was developed and validated by the Functional Foods Research Group at the University of Southern Queensland, closely mimics the pathological changes observed in human metabolic syndrome and was used in this project. Male Wistar rats (8-9 weeks old) were divided into six experimental groups. In the treatment group rats, obesity and symptoms of metabolic syndrome were developed during the first eight weeks of pre-treatment period, followed by curcumin treatment for the remaining eight weeks to reverse these symptoms. The total protocol was of 16 weeks. The efficacy of the low and high doses of curcumin in attenuating obesity was assessed by comparing control rats with curcumin treated rats with regard to fat deposition (obesity), cardiovascular health, liver function, metabolic health and tissue inflammation. The low dose of curcumin did not attenuate any signs of obesity. In comparison, the high dose of curcumin was able to normalise systolic blood pressure, reduce levels of inflammation in the heart, and lower visceral adiposity compared to high-carbohydrate, high-fat diet-fed obese rats. However, the high dose of curcumin was unable to affect other components of metabolic syndrome including overall fat content, and liver and metabolic health, which conflicted with the results of previous studies. Low bioavailability of curcumin may be an important factor in the unresponsiveness of curcumin in this study and improved bioavailability and reduced metabolism through nanoparticles may serve as a future direction for this study.
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