Sodium valproate, a medicine for epilepsy and other neuropsychiatric disorders, damages kidney tissue,

especially its mitochondria. Thus, the current research was aimed at evaluating the potential of curcumin against

the sodium valproate-induced nephrotoxicity. Animals utilized in this research were categorized into six groups

including the first group as control, the second as valproate (500mg/kg), the third, fourth, and fifth groups as rats

treated with a combination of valproate and curcumin (25 up to 100 mg/kg), and the sixth group only was

administrated with curcumin (100 mg/kg). All the treatments were performed for six consecutive weeks. The

results indicated that the function and swelling significantly increased while membrane potential decreased in

kidney mitochondria by using 100 mg kg-1 curcumin. Moreover, the protein carbonyl and malondialdehyde

significantly decreased in kidney tissue, whereas glutathione slightly increased after curcumin treatment. Taken

together, our findings for the first time suggested that curcumin confers mitochondrial protection against sodium

valproate-induced nephrotoxicity and can be used to antagonize sodium valproate nephrotoxicity.

Keywords: Curcumin; Kidney; Mitochondria; Nephrotoxicity.