Dietary aluminum and Alzheimer's disease--a review

Aluminum oxide crystal microdermabrasion. A new technique for treating facial scarring

BACKGROUND

Aluminum oxide crystal microdermabrasion, a newly developed technique, has the advantages of less bleeding, fewer complications, better compliance, and no need for local anesthesia or high surgical skill in comparison with traditional dermabrasion.

OBJECTIVE

To demonstrate the effectiveness of this new technique in the treatment of facial scarring.

METHODS

A total of 41 patients were treated by this technique during the past 2 years (July 1992 to June 1994).

RESULTS

All patients treated had good to excellent clinical improvement with 9.10 mean treatment sessions.

CONCLUSION

From our experience and results, we think aluminum oxide crystal microdermabrasion is a safe surgical procedure and will be a good supplement to traditional dermabrasion especially in this era of HIV infection.

Discrimination between aluminium held within vegetation and that contributed by soil contamination using a combination of Electron Probe Micro Analysis (EPMA) and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES)

Aluminium concentrations in NIST (formally NBS) Standard Reference Material Tomato Leaves and Citrus Leaves were determined by ICP-AES after acid digestion. The normal 'total' acid attack (nitric and perchloric acids) gave very low recovery (40%) of Al in NIST tomato leaves, but not for citrus leaves. The contribution of Al from Al-rich 'soil' particles in both tomato leaves and citrus leaves was estimated semi-quantitatively by computer-controlled EPMA. The Al held in these particles corresponded in approximate concentration to the shortfall between the acid soluble component determined in this study and the certified value. Analysis by EPMA can provide, therefore, a method of estimating Al contributed by soil contamination to plant materials. The limitations of the NIST tomato and citrus leaf reference material for the validation of methods for the determination of Al in vegetation are demonstrated.

Review of epidemiologic studies of aluminium and neurological disorders

The epidemiological study of neurological disorders is just beginning and should he continued because of the potential public health impact of these diseases on society. The most important contribution of epidemiological research is the identification of risk factors, and specific disease entities, such as Alzheimer's disease, should be studied.Ecological analysis of geographical data have associated a small increase in mortality from Alzheimer's disease and dementia with the aluminium content of drinking water. These results must necessarily be interpreted with caution because serious errors may result from inferences based on ecological analysis,e.g. "the ecologic fallacy".Potential risk factors for Alzheimer's disease have been studied in case-comparison epidemiology studies conducted in Italy, Massachusetts, Colorado, Minnesota and North Carolina, but only two studies have considered aluminium exposure, through the use of antacids. Although no increased risk was found to be associated with aluminium exposure, only a small number of individuals in the studies reported antacid use, and the studies had an extremely limited statistical power to detect an association.Additional analytical epidemiology studies, either cohort or case-comparison, are required to better describe the possible relationship between aluminium and Alzheimer's disease. These studies should be designed according to well-established epidemiological principles, be conducted with no selection bias and minimum observation bias, consider potential confounding and modifying factors, and have sufficient statistical power to enable detection of low relative risks.

The aluminum-induced increase in blood-brain barrier permeability to delta-sleep-inducing peptide occurs throughout the brain and is independent of phosphorus and acetylcholinesterase levels

The effect of aluminum on levels of inorganic phosphorus and acetylcholinesterase in blood and brain and on permeability of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in different regions of the brain to the neuropeptide delta-sleep-inducing peptide (DSIP) was studied in adult rats. Aluminum (100 mg/kg) significantly increased the permeability of the BBB to intracarotid 125I-N-Tyr-DSIP so that levels of radioactivity in whole brain were 45% higher than in control animals. The pattern of regional distribution of radioactivity in the brain was, however, unaffected, demonstrating that the affect of aluminum occurs throughout the BBB. Aluminum also significantly decreased inorganic phosphorus levels in the serum by 19%, but this effect did not correlate with BBB permeability to DSIP. Aluminum did not decrease brain levels of phosphorus despite the drop in blood levels of phosphorus nor affect brain or blood levels of acetylcholinesterase. Experiments with radioactive 32P reinforced the finding that blood but not brain levels of phosphorus are reliably affected by aluminum. The lack of correlation between changes in BBB permeability and decreased levels of inorganic phosphorus in the blood suggests that the effect of aluminum may not be mediated by its effects on phosphorus metabolism. Also, the change in BBB permeability after administration of aluminum does not appear to depend on changes in brain cholinergic activity but does occur throughout the brain.