The interrelationship between silicon and aluminium in the biological effects of aluminium

Effects of soluble silicon compound and deep-sea water on biochemical and mechanical properties of bone and the related gene expression in mice

Silicon has been known as an essential element for bone formation. The silicon contents of sea water increase with increasing of depth: 1.8 ppm Si in deep-sea water (DW) at 612 m in depth versus 0.06 ppm in surface sea water (SW). The effects of soluble silicon (Si) and DW from which NaCl was eliminated were studied in comparison with tap water (TW) and SW in cell cultures and in animal experiments using the control strain of senescence accelerated mouse, SAMR1. Si at 10 ppm as sodium metasilicate or 10% DW in the alpha-MEM medium stimulated cellular viability, marker enzymes of osteoblast and osteoclast cell lines, and the (45)CaCl(2) uptake in those cells in comparison with the medium control. After weanling SAMR1 were maintained for 6 months on a diet containing 200 ppm Si and 39% of DW and SW, DW and Si improved bone biochemical indices such as femoral weight, mineral and collagen content, and marker enzymes of bone formation and resorption as well as mechanical properties as compared to TW. In the femoral bone marrow of SAMR1, the mRNA expression of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2), interleukin-11 (IL-11), and runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx 2), which stimulate osteoblast development as well as type I procollagen (COL1A1) mRNA, were significantly increased in both DW and Si groups. The expressions of both osteoprotegerin (OPG) and receptor activator of NF-kappaB ligand (RANKL) were also elevated, resulting in distinct increases of the OPG/RANKL ratio in both DW and Si groups. The results indicated that a soluble silicate and deep-sea water as its natural material stimulated cell growth in both osteoblasts and osteoclasts in cell culture and promoted bone metabolic turnover in favor of bone formation through stimulation of the related mRNA expression in animal experiments.

Aluminium as a risk factor in Alzheimer's disease, with emphasis on drinking water

Aluminium (Al) is clearly a powerful neurotoxicant. Considerable evidence exists that Al may play a role in the aetiology or pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but whether the link is causal is still open to debate. This paper reviews the epidemiological evidence linking Al and AD. Nine out of 13 published epidemiological studies of Al in drinking water and AD have shown statistically significant positive relations. Given the difficulty in producing high-quality data for the occurrence of AD and also for Al exposure, with the resulting unavoidable misclassification errors biasing any true association towards the null value, these studies are remarkably consistent. A major problem in their interpretation is that drinking water, even at high Al concentrations, only contributes a fraction of the total dietary intake of Al. In particular, regular consumers of antacids ingest gram amounts of Al daily, thousands of times the amounts taken in through drinking water, and epidemiological studies of antacid exposure and AD have been largely negative. However, Al is very poorly absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, and the possibility that some Al fractions present in drinking water may be particularly bioavailable cannot be dismissed at present. The combined evidence linking Al and AD warrants substantial research efforts. Such efforts should focus on clarification of the cellular and molecular mechanisms in Al toxicity and of the basic metabolism and kinetics of Al in the human body, and on further epidemiological studies including diverse routes of Al exposure and also variables that are known or suspected to influence the individuals' susceptibility to AD, such as apolipoprotein E allele status and family history of AD.

Relation between aluminum concentrations in drinking water and Alzheimer's disease: an 8-year follow-up study

To investigate the effect of aluminum and silica in drinking water on the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, the authors analyzed data from a large prospective cohort (Paquid), including 3,777 subjects aged 65 years and over living at home in 75 civil parishes in Gironde and Dordogne in southwestern France in 1988-1989. The subjects were followed for up for 8 years with an active search for incident cases of dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Mean exposure to aluminum and silica in drinking water was estimated in each area. The sample studied included 2,698 nondemented subjects at baseline, for whom components of drinking water and covariates were available. A total of 253 incident cases of dementia (with 17 exposed to high levels of aluminum), including 182 Alzheimer's disease (with 13 exposed to high aluminum levels), were identified. The relative risk of dementia adjusted for age, gender, educational level, place of residence, and wine consumption was 1.99 (95 percent CI: 1.20, 3.28) for subjects exposed to an aluminum concentration greater than 0.1 mg/liter. This result was confirmed for Alzheimer's disease (adjusted relative risk = 2.14, 95 percent CI: 1.21, 3.80). However, no dose-response relation was found. Inversely, the adjusted relative risk of dementia for subjects exposed to silica (> or = 11.25 mg/liter) was 0.74 (95 percent CI: 0.58, 0.96). These findings support the hypothesis that a high concentration of aluminum in drinking water may be a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.

Kinetics of uptake and elimination of silicic acid by a human subject: a novel application of 32Si and accelerator mass spectrometry

Silicon is possibly important in human physiology in protecting against the toxic effects of aluminium, but the kinetics of uptake and excretion of silicic acid, the bioavailable form, are not well characterised. We have used 32Si as a tracer in a human uptake experiment to determine a gastrointestinal uptake factor for silicic acid, and to elucidate the kinetics of renal elimination. Urine collections were made for extending intervals from 2 to 12 h over 2 days following ingestion by a single human subject of a neutral silicic acid solution containing tracer levels of 32Si (t1/2 approximately 150 y). Silicon was isolated as SiO2 and the 32Si content determined by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), using a gas-filled magnet technique to eliminate a prolific isobaric interference from 32S. Silicon uptake appears to have been essentially complete within 2 h of ingestion. Elimination occurred by two simultaneous first-order processes with half-lives of 2.7 and 11.3 h, representing around 90% and 10%, respectively, of the total output. The rapidly eliminated 32Si was probably retained in the extracellular fluid volume, whilst the slower component may represent intracellular uptake and release. Elimination of absorbed 32Si was essentially complete after 48 h and was equivalent to 36% of the ingested dose. This establishes only a lower limit for gastrointestinal absorption as, although there was no evidence for longer term retention of additional 32Si, the possibility could not be excluded by these results.