The research findings by UC Riverside bioengineers, which were recently published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.
Turmeric may expedite the production of lab-grown blood vessels and other tissues that can replace and regenerate injured tissues in patients, says study.
The turmeric ingredient curcumin is known to inhibit angiogenesis in malignant tumours and has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
The Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering at UC Riverside’s Huinan Liu supervised a project to coat magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles with curcumin and combine them with a biocompatible hydrogel in order to study curcumin’s regeneration qualities. The magnetic hydrogel progressively released the curcumin without harming the cells when curcumin was cultivated with bone marrow-derived stem cells. The group of hydrogels containing nanoparticles coated with curcumin secreted more VEGF than hydrogels containing bare nanoparticles.
The research demonstrates that curcumin, which is produced from magnetic hydrogels, encourages cells to secrete VEGF, one of the most important growth factors for promoting the development of new blood vessels.
The scientists also tested if they could guide the magnetic properties of the nanoparticles to certain areas of the body. They put some of the curcumin-coated nanoparticles in a tube with fresh pig tissue and effectively guided the movement of the nanoparticles with a magnet.
The success implied that curcumin could someday be delivered via this technique to assist in the regeneration or healing of damaged tissue.
Parvathy Sukumaran 
