Abstract: Objective:To investigate the effects and its mechanism of curcumin Cur on ischemia-reperfusion(I/R) injury in rats.Methods:Sixty rats were randomly divided into the sham operation group(group A), I/R group(group B), curcumin+I/R group(group C) and Cur+I/R+Zn-protoporphyrin group(group D)(15 rats each group).group C and D were intraperitoneally injected with 100 mg/kg of curcumin before 5 days of operation, and group C were intraperitoneally injected with 20μmol/kg of Zn-protoporphyrin before 60 mins of operation.Group A and B were injected with equivalent 0.9% of sodium chloride.Except for group A, the bilateral renal blood vessels in other 3 groups were blocked, and poured into after 60 mins.The levels of serum creatinine(SCr), blood urea nitrogen(BUN), tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α), heme oxygenase-1(HO-1), intercellular adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1) in 4 groups were measured after 4 h, 12 h and 24 h of reperfusion.The kidney tissue was excised, and the levels of myeloperoxidase(MPO) activity in excised kidney tissue was measured.Results:The expression levels of SCr, BUN, TNF-α, ICAM-1 and MPO in group C and group D were higher and lower than those in group A and group B, respectively(P<0.05 to P<0.01).The expression levels of HO-1 in group C and group D were lower and higher than that in group A and group B, respectively(P<0.05 to P<0.01).The expression levels of TNF-αand ICAM-1 at each time-points in group D were higher than that in group C(P<0.05 to P<0.01).The expression levels of SCr and BUN in serum, and MPO in kidney tissue in group D at 12 h and 24 h were higher than that in group C(P<0.05 to P<0.01), the differences of whose at 4 h were not statistically significant(P>0.05), the level of HO-1 at each time-points in group D was lower than that in group C(P<0.05 to P<0.01).Conclusions:Curcumin can protect the kidneys against I/R injury, and effectively relieve the inflammatory reaction and oxidative stress of kidney tissue.HO-1 may be involved in the renal protective mechanism of curcumin.