The Effect of Aloe Vera on the Kidney Function of Male Wistar Rat

Acute kidney injury is a sudden loss of kidney function which manifests within a few hours to few days and remains associated with high morbidity and motality in the society, despite the advances in the field of medicine. Aloe vera is taken by many orally as it is medically important in the areas of skin treatments, digestive health, improvement of blood sugar and many more. The present study shows the effect of oral intake of different doses of Aloe vera on the kidney. Twenty (20) male albino Rats were randomly grouped in to five (5: Groups A-D and received the following treatments for two (2) weeks; Rats in group A (control group) no Aloe vera gel was administered, group B received high dose of Aloe vera gel (6ml/kg), group C received a medium dose (4.5ml/kg) and group D received a low dose (3ml/kg).Renal injury was assessed by measuring Serum creatinine (Jaffe-slot method), BUN (Diacetyl Monoxime method) Na+ and K+ (Perlong Medical PL1000A Electrolyte Analyser). Comparing the result with the normal control BUN (19.42± 1.21mg/dl), Creatinine (0.76 ± 0.32 mg/dl), K+ (5.24 ± 0.28 mg/dl) and Na+ (138.12 ± 1.09 mg/dl). Oral administration of high dose of Aloe vera showed significantly increase in concentration of BUN (22.25± 1.07 mg/dl), Creatinine (1.01± 0.13 mg/dl), K+ (7.83 ± 0.84 mg/dl) and reduction in Na+ (132.07 ± 0.36 mg/dl), from the low dose group the biochemical parameters tends to occur at the normal range with the Control group BUN (20.12 ± 1.72 mg/dl), Creatinine (1.51 ± 0.08 mg/dl), K+ (6.94 ± 0.05 mg/dl) and a slight increase in concentration of Na+ (133.49 ± 0.41 mg/dl). Histopathological studies also support the biochemical observations as the the kidney sections of Groups A and D showed normal Glomeruli and tubules, while that in Groups B and C showed eroded Glomeruli and sloughed off epithelia and eosinophilic casts in the tubules. This study reveals that Aloe vera possess a dose-dependent nephrotoxicity.