The Effect Of Virgin Coconut Oil (Vco) On Airway Inflammation And Mucus Secreting Cells In An Animal Model Of Chronic Lung Injury
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Date
2015-01
Authors
Kamalaldin, Nurulain ‘Atikah
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
A high prevalence of asthma over the years make the disease become a number three among list of live-risked disease worldwide. Inhalation of current drug therapies however has been recorded with severe side effects on the lung function, due to long term usage. In this study, virgin coconut oil (VCO) was given to animal model of asthma as to observe the effect of the inhalation of VCO on the infiltration of airway inflammatory cell, remodelling of airway structures (epithelium, mucosa and submucosa thickness), goblet cell hyperplasia and the proliferation activity of airway epithelial cells following the allergen exposure. The rabbits were elicited with combination of ovalbumin and alum injection and followed with ovalbumin inhalation, in order to induce the onset of asthma. The asthma model was then given the treatment with VCO-inhalation via rescue route (VCO as rescue agent group) and preventive route (VCO as preventive agent group). The GC-MS analyses for possible anti-inflammatory and anti-asthmatic compounds were also carried out. Result showed a significant reduction in the rescue group in terms of infiltration of inflammatory cell, thickness of airway structure (epithelium and mucosa) and goblet cell numbers. Reduction was also observed on the proliferation activity of the airway epithelial cell. In this study, the GC-MS analyses showed there were two possible components that might contribute to the effectiveness of VCO-inhalation, which was lauric acid (40.86%) and capric acid (5.17%). As a conclusion, the study showed that both treatment groups exhibited promising result for the VCO as anti-asthmatic remedies. However, better outcome was observed in rescue group, which can be concluded that the VCO was more suitable to act as medication in relieving or reducing the asthma attacks, but not to prevent the asthma onset during allergen sensitization in the airway. However, extensive future study needs to be carried out in order to determine the pathway in which the VCO was able to reduce the cellular response of allergic asthma.
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Keywords
Asthma