Ameliorative efficacy of tetrahydrocurcumin against arsenic induced oxidative damage, dyslipidemia and hepatic mitochondrial toxicity in rats
Authors: S Miltonprabu
M Muthumani
Journal: Chemico-Biological Interactions (2015)
Discipline: PHARMACOLOGY & TOXICOLOGY
Keywords: Arsenic; Liver; Mitochondria; Rat; Tetrahydrocurcumin.
Affiliations: Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar 608002, Tamilnadu, India., Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar 608002, Tamilnadu, India. Electronic address: .

Abstract:  Arsenic (As) is a well-known human carcinogen and a potent hepatotoxin. Environmental exposure to arsenic imposes a serious health hazard to humans and other animals worldwide. Tetrahydrocurcumin (THC), one of the major metabolites of curcumin, exhibits many of the same physiological and pharmacological activities as curcumin and in some systems may exert greater antioxidant activity than the curcumin. It has been reported that THC has antioxidant efficacy attributable to the presence of identical β-diketone of 3rd and 5th substitution in heptane moiety. In the present study, rats were orally treated with arsenic alone (5 mg kg(-1) bw/day) with THC (80 mg kg(-1) bw/day) for 28 days. Hepatotoxicity was measured by the increased activities of serum hepatospecific enzymes, namely aspartate transaminase, alanine transaminase, alkaline phosphatase and bilirubin along with increased elevation of lipid peroxidative markers, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances. And also elevated levels of serum cholesterol, triglycerides, free fatty acids and phospholipids were observed in arsenic intoxicated rats. These effects of arsenic were coupled with enhanced mitochondrial swelling, inhibition of cytochrome c oxidase, Ca(2+)ATPase and a decrease in mitochondrial calcium content. The toxic effect of arsenic was also indicated by significantly decreased activities of enzymatic antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase along with non-enzymatic antioxidant such as reduced glutathione. Administration of THC exhibited significant reversal of arsenic induced toxicity in hepatic tissue. All these changes were supported by the reduction of arsenic concentration and histopathological observations of the liver. These results suggest that THC has a protective effect over arsenic induced toxicity in rat. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 Concern about Figure 9. In all five panels, the bottom right corner appears to be a duplicate of another area in the same or from a different panel. Here is a close-up, marked version of four of the five panels. ![file] And here is the close-up of the bottom panel. ![file] , 
 #1 A similar phenomenon in the frames of Figure 8. Do you think it s a signature? ![file] ![file] These are small glitches in the Matrix, but it is difficult to think how they could occur unless the images were open within some form of image-processing software, which arouses disquiet and concerns about their veridicality. ![file] Like finding a fish, however small, within a bottle of milk. , 
 To be charitable, perhaps the authors had at some point inserted numbers into the lower-right corner of each panel, but then discovered that this was contrary to the journal s style - but they had lost the original images, forcing them to improvise. But then there is this, from the two remaining panels of Figure 8: ![file] , 
 #1 Dear EM.Bik, Greetings. After a series of comments about our paper, especially you are very interesting about the histology and histopathology and immunohistochemistry slides. I want to clarify one thing, in all the figures changes alterations were created by the toxicant and the recovery has to be tested with our selected antioxidant phytochelating substances. The alterations that is found in the tissues are produced by the metals through the process of oxidative damage via liberating more reactive oxygen species not by us. Repetitions that you have portrayed in the figures were not created by us and there was no need to manipulate the figures.we are still having all the slides. If you need specifically, Send your address, i will send my slided used for taking the photograph.And this is the supporting evidence along with the other evidences even without these figures, we could prove the positive effect of our selected drugs. Regarding histopathological studies, the tissues were fixed and despatched the out sourcing lab for prepared the slides and a pathologists would take the photograph from different groups and send their results with comments along the slides. And i have reviewed more than 300 papers peer reviewed paper from around every publishing house and i have also evaluated the originality and correctness of every article to be published in the journals. By just going through the manuscript i could identify the originality of the articles even we are not having such sophisticated softwares and microscopes. And for me there is no need for manipulating the figure for my articles. The photos ha to be received by me , based on the figures and reports ,i have written and compile my findings. And every journal system is having the ithenticate softwares for finding plagiarism and duplication manipulation of materials in the submitted manuscript. After these peer review process only our papers are accepted by the journals. Do you want to prove all the systems,softwares and reviewers were inefficient and useless. This is ridiculous. If you really asking for unintentional doubts, in the subject of pathology i am ready to respond. But your criticisms are so intensional and only targeting the Annamalai authors alones. Even without any proper sophisticated instruments, with limited funding opportunities, we have done lot of very good works based on the out sourcing process only. Don t hurt us with using the word  manipulation . Based on the results we got we had written and submit our reports to the publications and they have also done a very long screening and reviewing process with wide expertize. And all these things you have reported to be done before the publication of an article. If the journal office is seeking response tho the queries , i will send. , 
 #4 Thank you for your reply. Don t hurt us with using the word  manipulation . To be accurate, Dr. Bik did not use that word and did not ascribe any motives to the authors. She correctly, in my opinion, pointed out that there are repeated elements in the images. Hoya has identified additional occurrences of this phenomenon. You are correct that the journal should be made aware of these concerns and should address them in accordance with their policies. Note that this journal is a member of COPE. , 
 The author raises an interesting point. While it may be considered image manipulation to copy one area and paste it again somewhere else, the term fails to capture something like imaging one field, shifting the objective and imaging a slightly different adjacent field and then publishing them as being different tissues from differently-treated animals. We may be looking for a stronger word, here. Just to clarify HC s point: ![file] , 
 #4  Repetitions that you have portrayed in the figures were not created by us I am lost here. Were the repetitions inserted into the figures at some stage after submitting them to the journal? Were they already in the figures when the authors acquired them?  we are still having all the slides. If you need specifically, Send your address, i will send my slided used for taking the photograph. It is also possible to upload them to this Pubpeer thread, or to a free image-hosting service such as Imgur where they can be linked to from here. , 
 we are not having the sophisticated software s to identify the images taken from the same slides.Even if it occurred like this, we will replace it with our original slides,if it is requested from the journal, because now we have equipped with our own photo microscopy, we didn t depend on the out sourcing fellows to take the photography our slides. ,