The Effect of Aloe vera L. in Rat Lungs After Cigarette Smoke Induction

The incident of smoking is one of the world's health problems, as smoking increases the incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Aloe vera L has anti-inflammatory, immunomodulator, and beta-sitosterol properties. A research was conducted to observe its effects in preventing the cell apoptotic events as well as the increasing numbers of macrophages and the decreasing phagocytotic function of macrophages in rat's lung (Rattus norvegicus) that has been induced by cigarettes smoke. The study was conducted in January 2009-January 2010, located in Department of Cell Biology, Clinical Pathology, Anatomy Pathology and Health Research Unit of Faculty of Medicine University of Padjadjaran. This experimental study was conducted on rats which were divided into 3 groups each consisted 8 rats for 42 days in treatments. The data were collected from number of macrophages and its activity and also alveoli epithelial cell Bcl2 expression observation, than statistical analytic was performed using Mann-Whitney test. Result showed the significant difference (p<0.05) in number of macrophages, cigarette smoke group had a higher number (495.88 +/- 104.09) than cigarette smoke plus aloe group (295.63 +/- 176.79) but it showed the opposite for the phagocytotic function of macrophages. The cigarette smoke plus aloe group had higher percentage (11.67 +/- 12.84) than cigarette smoke group (3.77 +/- 1.39). Observation of Bcl2 expression in rat's lungs alveoli cell showed that the group exposed to cigarettes and Aloe vera were more expressed compared with cigarette exposed group (p < 0.05). This study proved that Aloe vera gel increases the number and cell activity of macrophages in addition to the Bcl2 expression in rat lungs which have been induced by cigarette smoke.