Curcumin attenuates apoptosis in diabetic cardiomyopathy by up-regulating Sirt3 and inhibiting SOD2 acetylation

Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a major complication of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) that significantly contributes to morbidity and mortality. Streptozotocin (STZ) was used to induce the formation of a type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) model in rats to research the effect of curcumin on diabetic cardiomyopathy. DM rats showed typical diabetic phenotypes such as increased blood glucose and impaired cardiac function. After curcumin treatment, the cardiac dysfunction and the serum levels of the DM rats were improved. At the same time, the apoptosis of cardiomyocytes decreased and the expression of Sirt3 increased. In vitro , H9c2 cells were cultured under high-glucose and high-fat (HG/HF) conditions, leading to cell apoptosis. Curcumin showed beneficial effects against the apoptosis of HG/HF H9c2 cells. However, after transfection of Sirt3-siRNA, the acetylation modification of superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2) increased, and the anti-apoptotic effect induced by curcumin was eliminated. Our results showed that curcumin could attenuate diabetic cardiomyopathy by up-regulating Sirt3 and inhibiting SOD2 acetylation.