Table 1. Aluminum content of major arteries that supply the human brain.
All arteries used in these studies were obtained from short post-mortem interval donors; arteries were dissected away and washed using physiological saline made up from ultrapure water (18 megohm, Milli-Q, Millipore or Puriss 95305, Fluka; aluminum content less than 1 ppb). Tubular segments of whole arteries from each anatomical area of interest, approximately 1.0 cm long (~6 gm wet weight), were subjected to HNO3-hydrolysis in platinum crucibles and trace metal analysis was performed using Zeeman-type electrothermal atomic absorption spectrophotometry (ETAAS; PE5000PC system, Perkin-Elmer, Waltham MA, USA), equipped with an automated sampler and IBM/AT-supported analysis package for trace metal analysis, as previously described by our group [8,9,18,20]. Ultrapure HNO3-washed polysulfonate plasticware was used according to the URI-GSO protocols and ultrapure water was employed throughout all isolation and biochemical procedures to stringently exclude trace metal contamination [18,20].
| artery | N* | μg/g** | fold increase*** |
|---|---|---|---|
| celiac (CA) | 8 | 2.5+/−2.1 | 1 |
| femoral (FA) | 6 | 5.1+/−2.2 | 1 |
| aorta (AA) | 6 | 7.0+/−5.1 | 1 |
| vertebral (VA) | 5 | 8.2+/−4.4 | 1 |
| common carotid (CCA) | 5 | 18.5+/−10.1 | 2 |
| internal carotid (ICA) | 8 | 22.5+/−12.3 | 3 |
| basilar artery (BA) | 5 | 27.1+/−15.7 | 3.5 |
| middle cerebral (MCA) | 5 | 35.1+/−16.3 | 4 |
| posterior cerebral (PCA) | 6 | 54.2+/−18.2 | 9 |
N* = number of individual arterial samples analyzed (**μg/g = mean +/− one standard deviation, micrograms of aluminum per gram whole artery (wet weight);
fold increase = mean ratio of AD over age-matched controls for the same artery; the study group of controls (N=6) and AD (N=12) tissues exhibited no significant differences in age (72.2±5.1 vs 73.1±4.8 yr, p~0.87, respectively) or postmortem interval (mean 5.2±2.8 vs 5.4±3.1 hr, p~0.91, respectively); the clinical and drug histories of the donors were not completely known; all AD cases were each case confirmed post-mortem using CERAD criteria and all AD cases were from advanced stages of AD [17,18].