Effects of Aluminium Chloride on Anxiety-Related Behaviour

Problem statement: Aluminium is presents in many manufactured foods, medicines and is also added to drinking water for purification purposes. It has the potential to be neurotoxic in human and animals but its contribution in Alzhemer’s disease remains contradictory. Anxiety affects one-eighth of the total population world-wide and has become an important area of research interest in psychopharmacology. Approach: The present study was aimed at evaluating the effects that Aluminium chloride could have on anxiety-related Behaviour of Adult wistar Rats. A total of Ten (10) Adult wistar rats were used for this experiment. The wistar rats were divided into five groups: Group I was the control that received distil water, Group II received 475 mg Kg^-1, Group III received 950 mg kg^-1, Group IV received 1,425 mg kg^-1 and Group V received 1,900 mg kg^-1 through oral intubation for duration of Eight weeks. Elevated plus maze was used to assay for anxiety-related behaviour of the wistar rats. The wistar rats were placed at the junction of the four arms of the maze, facing a closed arm, allowed to freely explore the maze and their behavior was recorded simultaneously for 5 m by means of a video camera. Results: Wistar rats treated with Aluminium Chloride had, increased faecal boli, increased number of time crossing close arm entries and increased average time spent in close arms; but decreased time (lesser time) spent in the open arm of the maze when compared with the control group. This in turn implies that the Aluminium treated groups were more anxious than the control groups in exploration of their activities on the Elevated plus maze. Conclusion: It was concluded that Aluminium Chloride exposure has negative effects on anxiety-related behaviour of wistar rats as indicated by increased rate of anxiety in aluminium treated rats.