Comparison of Effects of Curcumin and Nano-curcumin on the Survival of Human-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells: An Experimental Study

Aim: To evaluate and compare the effect of curcumin (CUR) and Nano-curcumin (N-CUR) on human-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in a dose-dependent manner. Materials and Methods: An experimental study performed with putative MSCs from a total of five systemically healthy subjects with chronic periodontitis. These putative MSCs were isolated by cell culture and were further characterized and identified by colony-forming unit assay and immunocytochemical analysis using cell surface markers CD105, CD146, CD45 and CD73. The identified MSCs were treated with different doses of CUR and N-CUR, and compared with α-minimum essential medium (α-MEM) for its cell viability by performing MTT (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) assay for 48 and 72 hr. The statistically analysis was performed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey’s post hoc test and Bonferroni’s post hoc test. Results: Compared to the α-MEM group, both CUR and N-CUR treated cells have shown significantly (P = .029) higher survival rate at lower concentration (0.1 and 0.5 µM/L), at 48 hr incubation. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the CUR and N-CUR groups on cell survival rate at both 48 and 72 hr incubation. When compared between the concentrations of the same group, significantly higher cell viability (P = .001) was observed at lower concentrations (0.1, 0.5 µM/L) in both test groups after incubation for 48 and 72 hr. Conclusion: Both CUR and N-CUR have a dose-dependent effect on human derived MSCs survival when incubated for 48 hr, whereas N-CUR shows increased cell survival rate even at 72 hr of incubation. Although, the cautious use of CUR and N-CUR at higher concentrations is recommended.