Mechanisms of aluminium neurotoxicity in oxidative stress-induced ...

AIMS OF THE PRESENT THESIS
The main objectives of this thesis were distributed in three chapters as follows:
Chapter 1
AIMS
The first principal aim is to determine the kinetics of the oxidative damage induced in a
6-OHDA model of PD and quantify the resulting oxidative effects in order to set up the
accurate post-injection time when studying the oxidative effects of aluminium. To
achieve this aim we have stablished the following specific objectives:
1) To analyse the time-course of the oxidative damage caused by unilateral and
intrastriatal administration of 6-OHDA (6 μg in 5 μl of sterile saline containing
0.2% ascorbic acid) in both the ipsilateral and contralateral sides of both striatum
and ventral midbrain of the rat.
2) To quantify the changes observed in the indices of lipid peroxidation (TBARS) and
oxidative status of proteins (PCC and PTC) in the time-course of brain oxidative
damage induced by 6-OHDA injection in the experimental model of PD mentioned
above.
Chapter 2
The second main objective is to elaborate a dosage procedure that ensures a significant
accumulation of aluminium into the brain and to establish its exact distribution in
different areas of the rat brain. In this case, the specific objective is:
3) To evaluate the precise regional accumulation of the absorbed aluminium in
cerebellum, ventral midbrain, cortex, hippocampus and striatum of rats following
the use of two different administration routes, oral and intraperitoneal.
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