Impact of aluminum sub-chronic toxicity on body weight and recognition memory of wistar rat.

The aims of this study was to investigate the impact of aluminum nitrate administered in drinking water during 90 days (sub-chronic toxicity), on body weight gain, motor activity, brain aluminum accumulation and especially in recognition memory of wistar rats. Two groups of young female wistar rats were used. Treated rats received (80 mg L(-1)) of aluminum nitrate diluted in drinking water, while control rats received a drinking water only, for 3 months. An evolution of body weight, a motor activity, object recognition memory (NOR) and brain aluminum concentration has been evaluated. The body weight was taken weekly, whereas the memory abilities and the motor activity are measured once every fortnight alternatively, by submitting rats to the open field test and to the novel object recognizing memory test. The results have showed a significant decrease in rats' body weight (p < 0.05). Though, no significance was registered for motor activity. Nevertheless, a high significance is showed for recognition memory compared to control rats (p < 0.01), especially at the end of testing period, even the difference between control and aluminium treated rats in brain aluminum levels was not significant.