Effects of Aluminium Chloride Exposure on the Histology of the Cerebral Cortex of Adult Wistar Rats

Abstract

Aluminium (Al) is presents in many manufactured foods, medicines and is also added to drinking water for purification purposes. Human exposure to Al has been increasing over the last decades. Al exposure and neurological impairments demonstrate mixed findings. The cerebral cortex is a sheet of neural tissue that is outer-most to the cerebrum of the mammalian brain and it plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness.The objectives of this study was to investigate the possible effects that aluminium Chloride could have on the histology of cerebral cortex. Total of twenty adult wistar rats were used for this experiment. The wistar rats were divided into five groups; group I was the control, group II received 475mg/Kg, group III received 950mg/kg, group IV received 1,425mg/kg and group V received 1,900mg/kg via oral intubation for a duration of Eight weeks. The wistar rats were humanly sacrificed and the brain was removed and immediately fixed in bouin fluid. The histological observations of the aluminium treated groups revealed extensive neuronal vacuolation and necrosis (neuro-degeneration) of the cerebral cortex of wistar rats.Based on our observations, we therefore conclude that Aluminium chloride exposure has neurodegenerative effects on the histology of cerebral cortex of adult wistar rats especially at higher dose. Therefore, caution should be taken in its usage.