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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Aug 25.
Published in final edited form as: Crit Rev Toxicol. 2014 Oct;44(Suppl 4):1–80. doi: 10.3109/10408444.2014.934439

Table 1.

Aluminum-induced neurotoxicity in laboratory animals.

Compound Strain/Species/Sex Exposure/Route/Frequency/Duration Concentration/Dose Response/Comment References
AlCl3 (purity not specified) Swiss mice ♂ (3–6 months of age) Intraperitoneal
Daily for 8 weeks
0 or 1.3 mg/kg-day Duration-dependent ↑ Al in cerebellum, striatum, cortex, hypothalamus and brain stem
Al measures by GFAAS
Abd El-Rahman et al. (2011)
AlCl3 (purity and source not specified) ICR mice (23.9 ± 1.96 g) Dietary 100 days 0, 10, 50, or 300 mg/kg-day Dose-dependent ↑ hippocampus and cortex MDA, ↑ mitochrondrial 8-OHdG
↓ Hippocampus and cortex SOD
Rui and Yongjian (2010)
AlCl3 Kunming mice (20–25 g) Intraperitoneal 0 or 40 mg/kg-day No reduction body weight or abnormal clinical signs Sun et al. (2009)
D-Galactose (chemical source and purity not specified) Daily for 90 days 90 mg D-Galactose/kg-day ↑ Water maze escape latency at 90 days
↑ Hippocampus and cortex Aβ at 60, 75 and 90 days
↑ Hippocampus and cortex BACE1 at 45–90 days
↓ Hippocampus and cortex neprilysin (NEP) at 45–90 days
Al2(SO4)3 with 10 or 86 mg/L silicic acid C57BL/6 mice Drinking water
12–15 months
0.04 M (pH 3.2–3.5) Body weight gain, food and drinking water consumption not affected; duration-dependent ↓ nitrergic neurons
No concurrent Al control group
Foglio et al. (2012)
Al(NO3)3 • H2O (Aldrich) NMRI mice (gender not specified) (30 g) Drinking water
ad libitum
3 months
450 mg/L No concurrent vehicle control group González-Muñoz et al. (2008a)
Al(NO3)3 • H2O (Aldrich) NMRI mice (gender not specified) (30 g) Drinking water
ad libitum
3 months
450 mg/L No concurrent vehicle control group González-Muñoz et al. (2008b)
AlCl3 (purity not specified) Sprague-Dawley rat Daily oral gavage 8 weeks 0 or 100 mg/kg-day Cerebral cortex, midbrain and cerebellar ↓ATP levels, ↓ATP synthesis, ↑ATP hydrolysis, ↓succinate dehydrogenase, NADPH, cytochrome oxidase, NADH dehydrogenase Sood et al. (2011)
AlCl3 (purity not specified) Sprague-Dawley rat Daily oral gavage
8 weeks
0 or 100 mg/kg-day ↑Focal inflammation and NO in cerebrum and cerebellum
↑Glial cell TNF-α, NF-κB, HSP70
Sood et al. (2012)
AlCl3 (purity not specified) Wistar rat ♀ Gastric intubation daily for 1 month then drinking water ad libitum for 5 months 500 mg/kg-day
1600 mg/L
↑ Posterior brain, liver and plasma LPO
↑ LDH release
Belaid-Nouria et al. (2012)
AlCl3 (purity not specified) Sprague-Dawley rat ♂ ♀ Gastric intubation daily for 4 months 0 or 100 mg/kg-day ↑ Whole brain AChE, LPO, homocysteine
↓ Whole brain folate, vitamin B12, GSH
↑ Plasma glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides and NO
↑ Necrosis and neurofibrillary tangles in both ♂ and ♀
Ahmed et al. (2011)
AlCl3 (purity not specified) Wistar rat ♂ Oral intubation daily for 3 months 0 or 50 mg/kg-day ↓ Body weight
↑ Cerebral cortex neuronal loss, hemorrhage, gliosis, Bax expression
↑ Cerebral cortex AChE, SOD, MDA, protein oxidation
↓ Cerebral cortex Na+/K+ ATPase activity, GPx, GST, GSH
↓ ChAt, NGF-TrkA and muscarinic receptor M1 expression
Bihaqi et al. (2009)
AlCl3 (source and purity not specified) Sprague-Dawley rat ♂ (200–210 g) Intraperitoneal injection once daily for 4 days 0 or 5.0 mg/kg-day Rats killed 2 weeks after final injection
↑ Necrosis and mitochrondrial degeneration in cerebral cortex and pyramidal neurons
↑ Perivascular edema in cerebral cortex
Colak et al. (2011)
AlCl3 (source and purity not specified; fresh solution every 4 days) Sprague-Dawley rat (gender not stated) (180 ± 10 g) Intraperitoneal injection once daily for 90 days 0 or 40 mg/kg-day ↓Cerebral and cerebellar AChE, GSH-Px, GSH, SOD, catalase
↑ Cerebral and cerebellar LPO
↓ Cerebral and cerebellar Ca and Zn
↑ A disintegrin metalloprotease, P53, Bcl■2, IL-4, IL-2
↓AChE expression
Elsaid et al. (2011)
AlCl3 (source and purity no specified) Albino rat ♂ Intraperitoneal injection daily for 28 days 0 or 4.2 mg/kg-day ↑Cerebral cortex, cerebellum, hippocampus LPO
↓Cerebral cortex, cerebellum, hippocampus GAS, SOD, GPx, GST, Na+/K+ ATPase
Sumathi et al. (2011)
Al (chemical form, source and purity not specified) Wistar rat ♂ (100–120 g) Gastric intubation daily for 4 weeks 0 or 10 mg/kg-day No change relative brain weight
No change cerebral GSH, GSH-Px, SOD, glutathione reductase or catalase activities
No change cerebral LPO
Nayak et al. (2010)
Al (chemical form, source and purity not specified) Wistar rat ♂ (100–120 g) Gastric intubation daily for 4 weeks 0 or 10 mg/kg-day ↓Body weight gain
No change absolute or relative brain weight, cerebrum acid or alkaline phosphomonoesterase or aspartate aminotransferase activities
↑ Cerebrum alanine aminotransferase
No change cerebrum amino acid homeostasis
Nayak et al. (2011)
Al(NO3)3 (chemical purity and source not specified) Sprague-Dawley rat ♀ (160 ± 10 g) Intraperitoneal injection daily for 60 days 0 or 27 mg/kg-day ↓ Fore- and midbrain AChE activity
↓ Hindbrain ATPase activity
↑ Forebrain LPO
↓ Forebrain SOD, catalase; no change GSH
↑ Cerebral neurofibrillary and Purkinje degeneration
Shrivastava 2012
AlCl3 (Sigma) Wistar rat ♂ (500 ± 50 g) Intrahippocampal injection
Single dose
0 or 0.37 mg/kg ↓ Hippocampus AChE at 10 min, 3 hr, 3 and 30 days post-injection
↑ Hippocampus NO
↓ Number correct active avoidance responses at 28–30 days post-injection
Stevanović et al. (2011)
Al(NO3)3 Wistar rat ♂ Single intraperitoneal injection 0 or 32.5 mg/kg ↓ Forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain AChE
↑ Brain, liver, kidney LPO
↓ Brain, liver, kidney GSH
Bhadauria 2012
AlCl3 (purity not stated) Rabbit (strain and sex not specified) Drinking water
ad libitum
3 months
0 or 20 mg/L (5–6.6 mg AlCl3/day per 1 kg rabbit ↑Total Al in brain
↑Atrophy in cerebral cortex, hippocampus
↑ Brain perivascular edema
↑ Brain LPO
Spectrophotometric Al measures
Abd-Elghaffar et al. (2007)
AlCl3 (source and chemical purity not specified) New Zealand White Rabbit Intracerebral injection
Single dose per Klatzo et al. (1965)
0 or 1.4% aqueous ↓ 16% brain cytochrome c oxidase Vmax at 10 days post-exposure
↓ Mitochondrial O2 consumption
No clinical signs mentioned
Alleyne et al. (2011)