Laser microprobe mass analysis (LAMMA) to verify the aluminon staining of bone

Lack of topographical relationship between sites of aluminum deposition and senile plaques in the Alzheimer's disease brain

Aluminum has been presumed to be involved in the pathogenesis or etiology of Alzheimer's disease. Histochemical demonstration of aluminum in autopsy brains from Alzheimer's disease victims by means of the solochrome azurine method in combination with the methenamine silver technique revealed aluminum-related staining in some neocortical and hippocampal senile plaques and tangles, as well as in the cytoplasm and/or the nuclei of some neurons, and in the cytoplasm of endothelial cells of blood capillaries and pericytes around larger blood vessels. In double-stained samples (first with methenamine silver and then with solochrome azurine) only some plaques displayed the presence of aluminum, while others did not show any sign of the presence of the trace metal. The specificity and sensitivity of solochrome azurine staining was checked in paper spot-test and test-tube experiments combined with flameless atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The results suggest that aluminum is present in brain samples from Alzheimer's disease victims, but the structural localization indicates that it is not primarily involved in the etiology of the disease.

Osteoporotic fractures: an unusual presentation of haemochromatosis

The association of haemochromatosis and osteoporosis is well established, but it is unclear whether this is due to iron overload, hypogonadism, liver disease, or diabetes mellitus. We describe a young eugonadal male patient with osteoporotic fractures as a presenting feature of haemochromatosis, suggesting that factors other than hypogonadism contribute to osteoporosis.

Demonstration of aluminium in iliac bone: correlation between aluminon and solochrome azurine staining techniques with data on flameless absorption spectrophotometry

The presence of excess aluminium was investigated in 204 samples of iliac bone from 197 patients with chronic renal failure by using the aluminon and solochrome azurine staining techniques. The results were compared with values obtained by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS). Overall, the staining reactions correlated with the AAS data, but the solochrome azurine stain was positive more often than was the aluminon stain (in 90.6% and 62.3%, respectively, of bone samples with greater than the control group mean +3SD (that is, in the range 17.8 to 113.4 micrograms aluminium/g Solochrome azurine staining was consistently positive in all cases, with greater than 23.1 micrograms aluminium/g bone but the corresponding aluminon stain was occasionally inexplicably negative in this range. In some samples solochrome azurine was positive in parts of old unresorbed cement lines when the aluminon stain was negative and the bone aluminium concentration was within the normal range or slightly increased. The stains, particularly solochrome azurine, have the advantage over AAS in that they indicate the location as well as the presence of excess bone aluminium.