Low-dose curcumin stimulates proliferation of rat embryonic neural stem cells through glucocorticoid receptor and STAT3.

Aims: This study was to determine whether curcumin had any effect on the proliferation of neural stem cell (NSC), analyze the expression of glucocorticoid receptor (GR), signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), and Notch1 at transcription and protein level, and discuss the related mechanisms.

Methods And Results: NSCs were harvested from E15 SD rat brain and cultured. All experiments were performed at the second passage.