AIM To investigate the effects of curcumin on neonatal rat cardiac myocytes exposure to high-glucose and the mechanisms involved.METHODS Neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were cultured in normal-glucose (NG, 5.5 mmol-L-1) or high-glucose (HG, 30 mmol·L-1) medium.The HG-cultured cardiomyocytes were treated with the concentration of 10 μg·L-1 curcumin.Prior to and after the HG injury the following were determined: the cell viability was assayed by CCK8, LDH activity and ROS generation was examined by biochemical tests, cardiomyocyte death and apoptosis were detected by TUNEL and FCM.And the interrelated proteins were measured by Western blot to investigate the involved signaling pathways.RESULTS Compared with NG-cultured cardiomyocytes, the LDH level and ROS generation were increased significantly in HG-cultured cardiomyocytes.Furthermore, HG induced apoptotic cell death.Cureumin could significantly increased the cell viability , decrease the activity of LDH and inhibit the ROS generation.Moreover, curcumin decreased HG-indnced apoptosis through upregulating Bcl-2 and downregulating Bax proteins expression.CONCLUSION Collectively, these results strongly suggest that curcumin could reduce cardiac myocytes apoptosis exposure to high-glucose by scavenging ROS and attenuating cell death.