BILIARY PROTEINS FROM HEPATIC BILE OF RATS FED CURCUMIN OR CAPSAICIN INHIBIT CHOLESTEROL CRYSTAL NUCLEATION IN SUPERSATURATED MODEL BILE

Following our earlier observations that curcumin and capsaicin are ant ilithogenic in mice and hamsters, attempts were now made to understand the manner in which these spice principles were acting. For this purp ose, the hepatic biles of rats fed a control,lithogenic, and lithogeni c diet supplemented with curcumin or capsaicin were subjected to gel f iltration chromatography (sepharose-4B-Cl) and the LMW protein fractio ns were tested for their ability to influence cholesterol crystal grow th in model bile. The LMW protein fraction from the lithogenic group b ile shortened the nucleation time and increased the crystal growth rat e and final crystal concentration. But with the LMW protein fractions from the biles of rats on the lithogenic group supplemented with curcu min or capsaicin, the nucleation times were prolonged and the crystal growth rates and final crystal concentrations were decreased. The LMW fractions were further purified into three different sugar specific pr oteins by affinity chromatography. A higher proportion of LMW proteins from the lithogenic group bile was bound to Con-A whereas higher prop ortions of LMW proteins from the groups fed with curcumin and capsaici n were respectively bound to wheat germ agglutinin and Helix pomatia l ectin. The Con-A bound fraction obtained from the lithogenic group sho wed a pro-nucleating effect. In contrast, the WGA-bound fraction obtai ned from curcumin group or the Helix pomatia lectin bound fraction obt ained from capsaicin group showed a potent antinucleating activity.