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  • Experimental aluminum pathology in rabbits: effects of hydrophilic and lipophilic compounds.

Experimental aluminum pathology in rabbits: effects of hydrophilic and lipophilic compounds.

Environmental health perspectives (1990-11-01)
G G Bombi, B Corain, M Favarato, R Giordano, M Nicolini, M Perazzolo, A Tapparo, P Zatta
ABSTRACT

Aluminum lactate [Al(lact)3] (hydrophilic, hydrolytically unstable) and aluminum acetylacetonate [Al(acae)3] (lipophilic, hydrolytically stable) were tested as potential toxicants to rabbits upon IV administration both as aqueous solutions and as liposome suspensions. Both chemicals behaved as cardiotoxic agents when administered as aqueous solutions, but Al(acae)3 was at least two orders of magnitude more active than Al(lact)3. Al(acae)3, but not Al(lact)3, caused myocardial infarcts resembling those in humans (with contraction bands) at doses as low as 0.24 mg/kg body weight, as well as a prominent acanthocytosis. Al(lact)3, when administered as a liposome suspension, was about 300 times more toxic than in aqueous solution, although cardiac damage was not infarctual in character. Both chemical and physical speciation of aluminum(III) thus play an essential role in determining the toxicity of the metal.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Sigma-Aldrich
Aluminum acetylacetonate, 98%
Sigma-Aldrich
Aluminum acetylacetonate, purified by sublimation, 99.999% trace metals basis