Determination of aluminium in different tissues of the rat by atomic absorption spectrometry with electrothermal atomization

Atomic absorption spectrometry with electrothermal atomization was used for the determination of aluminium in brain, liver, spleen, kidney cortex, skeletal muscle and bone of the rat following digestion by nitric acid and in serum following simple dilution and in situ oxygen ashing. The method of standard additions in the presence of a chemical modifier, ammonium dihydrogen-phosphate, was essential for bone tissues. The detection limits ranged from 3 to 58 ng per gram of wet mass of tissue and were 4-19 times lower than the observed physiological levels of aluminium. The between-day precision for serum was 8.9% at a mean concentration of 6.8 micrograms I-1 and 2.4% at a mean concentration of 125.3 micrograms I-1. Additionally, repeated analyses of National Institute of Standards and Technology Standard Reference Material 1577b Bovine Liver gave a relative standard deviation of 12.2% (mean concentration = 0.8 microgram g-1). Of the tissues studied, bone had at least ten times higher levels of aluminium than others (0.959 +/- 0.322 micrograms g-1). The aluminium concentration in cerebellum (0.073 +/- 0.043 micrograms g-1) was approximately twice that in the cerebral hemisphere (0.034 +/- 0.009 micrograms g-1).