Figure 1

Effects of curcumin on cell death and survival in SNc. Curcumin attenuated MPTP-induced DA terminal loss in striatum and dopaminergic neuronal death in the SNc. TH-stained sections of SNc in saline group (I), mice subjected MPTP-induced lesion (II), administration of the curcumin (III) and DMSO (IV) following MPTP injection. When compared to Curcumin treated mice (iv), DMSO-treated mice following MPTP lesion showed marked reduction in TH positive fibres in striatum (iii). (i, ii) TH staining in striatum of saline and MPTP-treated mice. Scale bars: (I,II,III,IV) =400 μm; (i,ii,iii,iv) =100 μm. (B) Quantitative analysis of the protective effects of curcumin against MPTP-induced mice model of nigrostriatal damage. ^aP < 0.05 vs. saline control ^bP <0.05 vs. MPTP injection groups.