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Fractal dimension values of cerebral and cerebellar activity in rats loaded with aluminium

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Abstract

Aluminium interferes with a variety of cellular metabolic processes in the mammalian nervous system and its intake might increase a risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). While cerebral involvement even at the early stages of intoxication is well known, the role of cerebellum is underestimated. Our aim was to investigate cerebral and cerebellar electrocortical activity in adult male rats exposed to chronic aluminium treatment by nonlinear analytic tools. The adult rats in an aluminium-treated group were injected by AlCl3, intraperitoneally (2 mg Al/kg, daily for 4 weeks). Fractal analysis of brain activity was performed off-line using Higuchi’s algorithm. The average fractal dimension of electrocortical activity in aluminium-treated animals was lower than the average fractal dimension of electrocortical activity in the control rats, at cerebral but not at cerebellar level. The changes in the stationary and nonlinear properties of time series were more expressed in cerebral electrocortical activity than in cerebellar activity. This can be useful for developing effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in neurodegenerative diseases.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financed by the Serbian Ministry of Science and Technological Development (Project Grant No. 143021). The kindness of Dr. S. Spasic, from the Institute for Multidisciplinary Studies in Belgrade for ceding us the software for FD calculation, is appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Biological Research “S. Stankovic”, University of Belgrade, Bulevar despota Stefana 142, Belgrade, Serbia

    Goran Kekovic, Milka Culic, Ljiljana Martac & Gordana Stojadinovic

  2. Medical Faculty, University of Novi Sad, Hajduk Veljkova 7, Novi Sad, Serbia

    Ivan Capo, Dusan Lalosevic & Slobodan Sekulic

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  1. Goran Kekovic
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  2. Milka Culic
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  3. Ljiljana Martac
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  5. Ivan Capo
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  6. Dusan Lalosevic
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  7. Slobodan Sekulic
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Correspondence to Goran Kekovic.

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Kekovic, G., Culic, M., Martac, L. et al. Fractal dimension values of cerebral and cerebellar activity in rats loaded with aluminium. Med Biol Eng Comput 48, 671–679 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-010-0620-3

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