Abstract
Human exposure to aluminium is a burgeoning issue. The brain is a sink for systemically available aluminium and a putative target of neurotoxicity. An increasing number of studies continue to confirm the presence of aluminium in human brain tissue though primarily in relation to donors who have died of a neurodegenerative or neurodevelopmental disorder. Herein, we have measured aluminium in brain tissue in donors who died of a specific disease or condition though without showing any neurodegeneration. The donors were diagnosed as not suffering from multiple sclerosis. Herein, these novel data are compared with recent data on aluminium in brain tissue in multiple sclerosis. Brain tissues from all four lobes were obtained from the Multiple Sclerosis Society Tissue Bank. Tissues were digested using microwave-assisted acid digestion and their aluminium content was measured by transversely heated graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Both are established methods in our laboratory. Detailed statistical analyses were used to compare new data with recent data for multiple sclerosis. Aluminium was found in brain tissue in each donor with a high proportion of measurements (189/291) being below 1.00 μg/g dry weight. The data for all cases (median and IQR) were 0.74 (0.48–1.28), 1.23 (0.62–1.63), 0.84 (0.45–1.14) and 1.01 (0.62–1.65) μg/g dry weight for occipital, parietal, temporal and frontal lobes, respectively. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between aluminium content of brain tissue and the age of donor. Comparison of data for this non-multiple sclerosis group with brain aluminium data for donors dying with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis showed that the latter had a statistically significant higher content of brain aluminium. The data reinforce a previous conclusion that the aluminium content of brain tissue in multiple sclerosis is elevated and support the suggestion that human exposure to aluminium may have a role to play in the aetiology of multiple sclerosis.
Highlights
Human exposure to aluminium is burgeoning (Exley 2013; Klotz et al 2017; Stahl et al 2017)
Do we have evidence that the aluminium content of brain tissue in multiple sclerosis (MS) is high due to increased uptake or higher retention? To help in answering this question, The Multiple Sclerosis Society Tissue Bank provided us with brain tissues from donors who did not die with a diagnosis of MS and showed no neurodegeneration beyond that which could be attributed to normal ageing
The majority of measurements across all four lobes for all individuals were below 1.00 μg/g dry weight (189/291) though 59, 24 and 19 measurements were in the range, 1.00–1.99, 2.00–2.99 and ≥ 3.00 μg/g dry weight, respectively
Summary
Human exposure to aluminium is burgeoning (Exley 2013; Klotz et al 2017; Stahl et al 2017). Is considered a major risk factor for the accumulation of aluminium in brain tissue (Roider and Drasch 1999) and in itself may underlie a higher content of aluminium in brain tissue in sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (House et al 2012; Yumoto et al 2018). We made the first analyses of aluminium in brain tissue in individuals who died with a diagnosis of the neurological condition, multiple sclerosis (MS) (Mold et al 2018b). To help in answering this question, The Multiple Sclerosis Society Tissue Bank provided us with brain tissues from donors who did not die with a diagnosis of MS and showed no neurodegeneration beyond that which could be attributed to normal ageing. We aimed to provide further information on aluminium in brain tissue in disease and to test if data for MS are, as was previously suspected, unusually high
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