Effect of long-term feeding of aluminium chloride on hexokinase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in the brain.

Rats were fed 100 microM AlCl3 for 1 year in their drinking water, then killed and their brains homogenized in 0.1 M Tris (pH 7.4). The 800 g supernatants were assayed for Al3+ and the activities of acetylcholine esterase (ACE), hexokinase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH). The concentrations of Al in the homogenates, as computed on the original brain for the control and Al fed group were 40 ng and 80 ng/g wet wt, respectively. The activity of ACE was the same in both groups but that of hexokinase and G6PDH in the Al-fed group was about 73% and 80%, respectively, of the control. Dialysis restored the G6PDH but increased the hexokinase of the control group 2-fold and that of Al-fed group 2.7-fold. Thus at this elevated level it was same in both groups. The contribution of Al from the undialysed homogenates during assay was too low to account for the inhibition. It is therefore suggested that a dialyzable inhibitor for hexokinase is normally present in the brain and that Al feeding increases its concentration to further inhibit the utilization of glucose.