Nutritional and toxicological effects of short-term ingestion of aluminum by the rat

Aluminum nitrate was given orally to four groups of female Sprague-Dawley rats over a period of one-hundred days at doses of 0, 360, 720 and 3600 mg/kg/day. Rats were monitored for weight gain, food intake, drinking water, hematology and plasma chemistry. The results show that the ingestion of aluminum nitrate by the rat caused a significant decrease in its growth. The nutritional parameters were always significantly lower for the treated animals. Aluminum did not accumulate dose-dependently in the organs and tissues analysed. Histopathological studies, including organ weight determinations, did not show significant changes. The possibility of oral aluminum intoxication in the human would be very low.