Pharmacological doses of dietary curcumin increase colon epithelial cell proliferation in vivo in rats.

Although curcumin has preventive actions in animal models of colon cancer, whether the mechanism of action is through anti-proliferation in normal environment is not clearly understood. Here, we studied the effects of chemopreventive doses of curcumin on the proliferation rate of colon epithelial cells (CEC), using a recently developed stable isotope-mass spectrometric method for measuring DNA synthesis rate. Adult male F344 rats were given diets containing 0, 2 and 4% curcumin for 5 weeks. 4% (2)H(2)O was given in drinking water to label DNA, after a priming bolus, for 4 days prior to sacrifice. The isotopic enrichment of the deoxyribose moiety of deoxyadenosine from DNA was measured by gas chromatography - mass spectrometry. Cell cycle analysis was performed after propidium iodide staining of CECs. Curcumin administration did not reduce but instead resulted in dose-dependent increases in CEC proliferation rate (p < 0.05) for 2% and 4% curcumin vs 0%). The length of the colon crypts and the fraction of cells in S-phase were also increased in the 2% and 4% curcumin groups (p < 0.05). Thus, pharmacological doses of curcumin increase CEC proliferation rate and pool size in normal rats. Reduction of CEC proliferation therefore cannot explain the proposed chemopreventive actions of curcumin in colon cancer.