Low-calcium, high-aluminum diet-induced motor neuron pathology in cynomolgus monkeys

Long-term epidemiological studies indicate that environmental factors play a causative role in high-incidence amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and parkinsonism-dementia (PD) in the western Pacific. An increased risk for disease is acquired in youth and remains for life. The low concentrations of calcium and magnesium and high levels of aluminum in the soil and drinking water, along with the relative isolation of these populations, constitute an unusual environmental feature common to all three high-incidence foci. Studies of mineral deposition in brain tissue of Guamanian ALS and PD patients, as well as of neurologically normal Guamanians with neurofibrillary degeneration, demonstrate accumulations of calcium, aluminum and silicon in neurofibrillary tangle-bearing neurons. In an attempt to duplicate the low calcium and high aluminum and manganese in soil and drinking water in these foci, we maintained juvenile cynomolgus monkeys for 41 to 46 months on a low-calcium diet with or without supplemental aluminum and manganese. Experimental animals exhibited mild calcium and aluminum deposition and degenerative changes, compatible with those of early ALS and PD, in motor neurons of the spinal cord, brain stem, substantia nigra and cerebrum. Neuropathological findings included chromatolysis, aberrant perikaryal accumulation of phosphorylated neurofilament, neurofibrillary tangles, axonal spheroids, and basophilic and hyaline-like inclusions consisting of abnormal cytoskeletal elements by electron microscopy. The magnitude and extent of these lesions far exceeded those found in normal aged monkeys.