A Brief Review of Neurotoxicity Induced by Melamine

Lei An, Wei Sun

In September 2008, in China, tens of thousands of children were hospitalized, several even died, as a result of infant-formula milk adulterated with a synthetic chemical compound, melamine, and in the next few months, this crisis became the focus of attention worldwide. Although there are a number of articles about nephrotoxicity of melamine, the evidence of melamine toxicity on other organs is still scanty. Specially, several recent studies indicated that melamine can perturb the central nervous system (CNS) function and induce cognitive deficits, breaking the previous view that melamine toxicity is limited to the urinary system. This review focuses on some developmental consequences of melamine exposures through various routes in vitro and in vivo, from ethology to molecular and cellular assessments. The evidences demonstrate that the neurotoxic effects of melamine were varied from different route exposure. Finally, the relevant literature on the mechanisms of these aspects has been discussed, and some suggestions towards further researches have been presented.