Metallomic Distribution in Various Regions of the Brain as Influenced by Dietary Intakes and Their Implications

Abstract

Lifelong exposure to environmental factors can influence the risk of developing diseases according to recent research findings. Environmental stresses ultimately leading to neuronal cell death have been hypothesized as the causes of the increased occurrence in developing Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Our daily diet is considered to be one of the most important environmental factors that can seriously affect the development and proper functions of the brain. Depending on the concentrations, metals and electrolytes can post some health concerns, especially for a prolonged consumption period. For example, it was reported that excess amounts of iron, zinc and copper in the human brain may cause oxidative damage and protein aggregation; the neurotoxicity induced by these metals may lead to cerebral and/or cerebellar degeneration. Other reports showed that there were differences in concentrations of five different elements (aluminum, zinc, copper, manganese, and iron) between normal human brain and brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. In this study, we investigated 30 elements, including electrolytes, and how dietary intake on a life-time basis would affect their concentrations and distributions in various regions of the rat brain (hypothalamus, cerebellum, pons and medulla, striatum, mid-brain, cerebral cortex, and hippocampus) and discussed their health implications. Information matrices of these 30 different elements (mostly metals) and their distributions in various regions of the rat brain were analyzed as a function of normal dietary intake at different ages during development. Our results showed that metallomic distribution in various regions of the rat brain is age-related. The results may help researchers to identify possible links between daily dietary intake of metals and electrolytes and diseases associated with aging (e.g., Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease) and suggest such metallomic distributions may be used as neurological biomarkers of exposure to heavy metals.