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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mol. Med
Sec. Molecular Microbes and Disease
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmmed.2025.1573560
Curcumin ameliorates DSS-induced colitis in mice through modulation of gut microbiota and metabolites 1, †
Provisionally accepted- 1 School of Medical Technology, Zhenjiang College, Zhenjiang, China
- 2 Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China
In this study, we established a mouse colitis model using DSS to explore the impact of curcumin on intestinal injury, gut microbiota, and fecal metabolites.The findings indicate that curcumin effectively mitigated weight loss and colon shortening caused by colitis, enhanced the expression of the antiinflammatory factor IL-10 mRNA (p<0.05), and suppressed the expression of pro-inflammatory factors IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α mRNA (p<0.05). 16S rDNA sequencing analysis showed that in the CUR group, compared to the NC and DSS groups, the abundance of Bacteroides, Lachnospiraceae NK4A136, and Ruminococcaceae UGC 014 significantly increased, while that of Lactobacillus markedly decreased. Additionally, compared to the DSS group, the CUR group exhibited a significant reduction in metabolites associated with nucleic acid and fat metabolism, including Xanthosine, Isocitric acid, and D-xylose. Conversely, the metabolites of curcumin, such as Demethoxycurcumin and Tetrahydrocurcumin, were significantly elevated in the CUR group. Curcumin appears to offer protection against mouse colitis by potentially enhancing the composition of gut microbiota and regulating metabolic and inflammatory processes through its metabolites.
Keywords: Curcumin, Colitis, Gut Microbiota, Metabolites, Mouse
Received: 09 Feb 2025; Accepted: 03 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yi, Xia, Yan, Xia, Wang, Mao and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Fei Mao, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China
Pan Huang, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China
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