Abstract

Objectives: In the present study, we aimed to examine the efficacy of curcumin on endothelial vascular protection on human umbilical vein
endothelial cells (HUVEC) cells in the in vitro setting and to determine effective doses.
Materials and methods: Cytotoxic effect and wound healing activity of curcumin on the HUVEC cell line were evaluated and angiogenesis
was studied by tube formation assay. The cytotoxic activity of 0.5 to 8 µM curcumin on HUVEC cell line was tested using the WST-1 cell
proliferation assay. In wound healing determination, the scratched cells were incubated with the half maximal effective concentration (EC50)
dose of curcumin and wounds were monitored by the JuLI™ Br live cell movie analyzer. Wound gaps were measured using the ImageJ
software. To determine the angiogenesis, tube formation assay was performed and the results were analyzed.
Results: The 1.77 µM of curcumin increased the cell viability by 150% after 48 h of treatment. According to the wound healing results,
after 48 h of incubation, the control group and 1.77 µM curcumin exhibited 47.1% and 43.8% closure, respectively. The mean maximum and
minimum tube lengths were found to be 21,858±3,945 and 12,438±3,817 pixel for curcumin, respectively with low fetal bovine serum (FBS)
and curcumin with high FBS, respectively.

Key words: Our results show that curcumin is a promising endothelial protective agent for HUVEC cell line.