Objective:Intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM1)-1 plays a very important role in intestinal inflammation of patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) induces overexpression of ICAM-1 in endothelial cells. The aims of study were to investigate the effects of curcumin on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and to observe whether curcumin can influence expression of ICAM-1 induced by TNF-α. Methods:HUVECs were obtained from umbilical cord of newborns and cultured and generated from primary to the fifth generation. The third to fifth generation of cells were selected and divided into three experimental groups,including control group,TNF-α group with 10 ng/ml TNF-α intervention for 3 hours and curcumin group. In curcumin group,HUVEC was cultured with 10 μmol/L curcumin for 2 hours and then continued to culture for 3 hours after adding 10 ng/ml TNF-α. The expression of ICAM-1 was detected by flow cytometry and immunofluorescence. Flow cytometry was performed to detect the expression of ICAM-1 on HUVEC surface in the three groups. Meanwhile,immunofluorescence was performed to observe the fluorescence intensity of the expression of ICAM-1. The expression of ICAM-1 mRNA was measured by Real-time PCR. Results:①The expression of ICAM-1 in HUVEC in the TNF-α group was significantly increased than that in the control group [(88.69 ± 3.14)% vs(9.82 ± 1.21)%,P < 0.01]. The expression of ICAM-1 in the curcumin group [(41.85 ± 8.39)%] was significantly decreased than that in the TNF-α group (P < 0.01),but higher than that in the control group(P < 0.01). ②The immunofluorescence results also showed that the expression intensity of ICAM-1 in the TNF-α group was significantly higher than that in the control group. The expression intensity of ICAM-1 in the curcumin group was decreased than that in the TNF-α group. ③The expression of ICAM-1 mRNA in the TNF-α group was increased than that in the control group (34.70 ± 14.99 vs 1.03 ± 0.26,P < 0.05). The expression of ICAM-1 mRNA in the curcumin group (15.34 ± 8.42) was significantly decreased than that in the TNF-α group(P < 0.01),but higher than that in the control group(P < 0.05). Conclusion:The results showed that curcumin could inhibit the expression of ICAM-1 protein in HUVEC induced by TNF-α. The effect may be related to the inhibition of ICAM-1 mRNA expression.