Intonation of Nrf2 and Hif1-α pathway by curcumin prophylaxis: A potential strategy to augment survival signaling under hypoxia.

Background: Pulmonary surfactant oxidation leads to alveolar collapse- a condition often noticed in high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). The present study was aimed to determine the effect of curcumin prophylaxis in augmenting the phase II antioxidant enzymes and surfactant proteins expression in enabling the pulmonary surfactant homeostasis under hypoxia.

Methods: A549 cells were exposed to 3% hypoxia for different time durations (1 h, 3 h, 6 h, 12 h and 24 h).

Quercetin as a prophylactic measure against high altitude cerebral edema.

The present study was undertaken to elucidate the intervention of quercetin against high altitude cerebral edema (HACE) using male Sprague Dawley rats as an animal model. This study was also programmed to compare and correlate the effect of both quercetin (flavonoid) and dexamethasone (steroid) against HACE. Six groups of animals were designed for this experiment, (I) normoxia, (II) hypoxia (25,000 ft, 24 h), (III) normoxia+quercetin (50 mg/kg body wt), (IV) normoxia+dexamethasone (4 mg/kg body wt), (V) hypoxia+quercetin (50 mg/kg body wt), (VI) hypoxia+dexamethasone (4 mg/kg body wt).

Nifedipine inhibits hypoxia induced transvascular leakage through down regulation of NFkB.

We have studied the prophylactic administration of nifedipine and its molecular mechanism involved in reducing the transvascular leakage and inflammation in rats under hypoxia. Rats exposed to an altitude of 7620m for 6h resulted into significant increase in transvascular leakage, oxidative stress with increased NFkB expression in lungs followed by significant increase in pro inflammatory cytokines (IL-1, TNF-α) with up regulation of cell adhesion molecules (ICAM-I, VCAM-I, E-selectin, and P-selectin) in the lungs over control. Prophylactic administration of nifedipine significantly reduced the transvascular leakage, oxidative stress, inhibited the up regulation of NFkB in lungs of rats compared to control.