Chromium Picolinate Helps Diabetic Nephropathy

BETHESDA, Md.Taking chromium picolinate may help lessen inflammation associated with diabetic nephropathy (kidney disease), according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta. Researchers found mice treated with chromium picolinate had lower levels of albuminuria (protein in the urine), an indication of kidney disease, than the placebo group. Three groups of mice were compared: one lean, healthy group; and two groups genetically engineered to be obese and have diabetes. When the mice were six weeks old, researchers separated them according to treatment plan. Healthy mice and the untreated diabetic group were fed a regular rodent diet. The treated diabetic group was fed a diet enriched with chromium picolinate.

Over the course of six months, glycemic control and albuminuria was measured in all three groups. The untreated diabetic mice excreted nearly 10 times more albumin than the db/m mice, which was to be expected. However, the treated diabetic mice, which were fed the diet with chromium picolinate, excreted about half as much albumin compared to their untreated diabetic counterparts. At the end of six months, the mice were euthanized and the researchers studied tissue samples from the mices kidneys.

The untreated diabetic mice had marked immunostaining for interleukin 6 (IL-6) and interleukin 17 (IL-17), two cytokines associated with inflammation. These mice also had moderate immunostaining for indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), an immunoregulatory enzyme that modulates the production of IL-6 and IL-17. However, the treated diabetic mice had intense immunostaining for IDO but reduced IL-6 and IL-17 compared to the untreated diabetic group, implying chromium picolinate may have reduced inflammation in the treated diabetic group by affecting IDO, IL-6 and IL-7.

Mahmood Mozaffari, DMD, Ph.D., professor in the Medical College of Georgia Department of Oral Biology and lead author of the study, noted the results are preliminary and further studies are necessary to tease out the effects of chromium picolinate. He is particularly interested in the relationship between IDO and chromium picolinate because IDO is involved in the metabolism of tryptophan, an amino acid, and one of the by-products of that metabolism is picolinic acid.

This clearly raises an important question for us as to whether our observations are related to the provision of picolinic acid from the chromium picolinate or whether the formulation [chromium picolinate], in and of itself, is mediating the effects," he said.