Methods: Acemannan was extracted from aloe vera gel and characterized by HPLC and GC-MS. The female Spraque-dawley rats were used in this study. Bilateral, the circular, 3-mm in diameter, defects were created. The animals were randomized into three groups (n= 6 per group). One of defect was implanted with acemannan sponge 0.5,1 and 2 mg, while another side of defect was non-treatment as negative control. Animals were sacrificed after 4 weeks of experiment. The calvaria were harvested to assess defect surface area. The bone mineral density was determined by Dual Energy X-ray Absorption. The data was presented as mean± SD. The results were analyzed by pair-t test using SPSS program for Window. Value of p<0.05 were considered as statically significant.
Results: Acemannan sponge at 1 and 2 mg were significantly increased the bone mineral density as compared with control group around 11 and 20 percents, respectively.
Conclusions: Acemannan enhances the new bone formation in calvaria defect model.