Aluminium and human breast diseases

Darbre, P. D., Pugazhendhi, D. and Mannello, F. (2011) Aluminium and human breast diseases. Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 105 (11). pp. 1484-1488. ISSN 0162-0134 doi: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2011.07.017

Abstract/Summary

The human breast is exposed to aluminium from many sources including diet and personal care products, but dermal application of aluminium-based antiperspirant salts provides a local long-term source of exposure. Recent measurements have shown that aluminium is present in both tissue and fat of the human breast but at levels which vary both between breasts and between tissue samples from the same breast. We have recently found increased levels of aluminium in noninvasively collected nipple aspirate fluids taken from breast cancer patients (mean 268±28 g/l) compared with control healthy subjects (mean 131±10 g/l) providing evidence of raised aluminium levels in the breast microenvironment when cancer is present. The measurement of higher levels of aluminium in type I human breast cyst fluids (median 150g/l) compared with human serum (median 6g/l) or human milk (median 25g/l) warrants further investigation into any possible role of aluminium in development of this benign breast disease. Emerging evidence for aluminium in several breast structures now requires biomarkers of aluminium action in order to ascertain whether the presence of aluminium has any biological impact. To this end, we report raised levels of proteins that modulate iron homeostasis (ferritin, transferrin) in parallel with raised aluminium in nipple aspirate fluids in vivo, and we report overexpression of mRNA for several S100 calcium binding proteins following long-term exposure of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells in vitro to aluminium chlorhydrate.

Additional Information	Keele special issue: Aluminum and life - living the in aluminum age
Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/24947
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Biomedical Sciences
Uncontrolled Keywords	Aluminium; Breast cyst; Nipple aspirate fluid; Breast cancer; Antiperspirant; Metalloestrogen
Additional Information	Keele special issue: Aluminum and life - living the in aluminum age
Publisher	Elsevier
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