Abstract
ObjectivesThis study assessed the cognitive function of aluminum-exposed participants from an alum mining zone, compared them with unexposed subjects, and aimed to elucidate the effect of aluminum exposure on cognition.DesignThis was a comparative cross-sectional study. Univariate analyses were used to assess the differences between the aluminum-exposed and unexposed groups. Binary logistic regression models were applied to analyze the effect of aluminum exposure.SettingThe aluminum-exposed participants were included from an alum mining zone and the unexposed subjects were residents from another district without alum-mine-related factories.ParticipantsWe included 539 aluminum-exposed participants (254 men, 285 women) and 1720 unexposed participants (692 men, 1028 women).ResultsThe mean cognition score on Mini-Mental State Examination was 21.34 (± 6.81) for aluminum-exposed participants. The exposed group had 6.77 times (95% confidence interval, 5.09–9.00) more risk of cognitive impairment than the unexposed group, after adjusting for age, sex, and educational level. No statistically significant association was found between exposure duration and cognition.ConclusionsThis study demonstrated a significant association between aluminum exposure and lower cognitive function.
Highlights
Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust
This study demonstrated a significant association between aluminum exposure and lower cognitive function
Since the 1960s, when Alzheimer’s-like neuronal lesions were found in rabbits that had been treated with a compound containing aluminum [4], the causal relationship between aluminum and dementia has been the subject of ongoing research [5,6,7]
Summary
Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust. It has been widely used in cooking utensils and in recent decades, has been found in foods in China, such as deep-fried dough sticks [1, 2].Aluminum is recognized as a catalyst for Alzheimer’s disease; in the absence of brain-burdening aluminum, Alzheimer’s disease is not an inevitable consequence of aging [3]. Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust. It has been widely used in cooking utensils and in recent decades, has been found in foods in China, such as deep-fried dough sticks [1, 2]. There is evidence that aluminum affects amyloid-β (Aβ) proteins by promoting the production of Aβ aggregates and inhibiting their degradation [9,10,11,12]. Because aluminum has the ability to block the formation of calcium-permeable ion channels mediated by Aβ, it can inhibit the increase in calcium influx induced by neurotrophic factors such as the brain derived neurotrophic factor [14,15,16,17]
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