Aluminium in Brain Tissue in Multiple Sclerosis

Matthew Mold, Agata Chmielecka, Maria Raquel Ramirez Rodriguez, Femia Thom, Caroline Linhart, Andrew King and Christopher Exley
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Matthew Mold: The Birchall Centre, Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK
Agata Chmielecka: Life Sciences, The Huxley Building, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK
Maria Raquel Ramirez Rodriguez: The Birchall Centre, Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK
Femia Thom: Life Sciences, The Huxley Building, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK
Caroline Linhart: Department of Medical Statistics, Informatics and Health Economics, Medical University of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Andrew King: Department of Clinical Neuropathology, Kings College Hospital, London SE5 9RS, UK
Christopher Exley: The Birchall Centre, Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-8

Abstract: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a devastating and debilitating neurodegenerative disease of unknown cause. A consensus suggests the involvement of both genetic and environmental factors of which the latter may involve human exposure to aluminium. There are no data on the content and distribution of aluminium in human brain tissue in MS. The aluminium content of brain tissue from 14 donors with a diagnosis of MS was determined by transversely heated graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. The location of aluminium in the brain tissue of two donors was investigated by aluminium-specific fluorescence microscopy. The aluminium content of brain tissue in MS was universally high with many tissues bearing concentrations in excess of 10 μg/g dry wt. (10 ppm) and some exceeding 50 ppm. There were no statistically significant relationships between brain lobes, donor age or donor gender. Aluminium-specific fluorescence successfully identified aluminium in brain tissue in both intracellular and extracellular locations. The association of aluminium with corpora amylacea suggests a role for aluminium in neurodegeneration in MS.

Keywords: multiple sclerosis; human exposure to aluminium; human brain tissue; TH GFAAS; aluminium-specific fluorescence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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