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Improper eating habits such as high-fat or high-carbohydrate diets are responsible for metabolic changes resulting in impaired glucose tolerance, hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, and ultimately diabetes. Although the essentiality of trivalent chromium for humans has been recently questioned by researchers, pharmacological dosages of this element can improve insulin sensitivity in experimental animals and diabetic subjects. The aim of the study was to assess the preventive potential of the supplementary chromium(III) propionate complex (CrProp) in rats fed a high-fat diet. The experiment was conducted on 32 male Wistar rats divided into four groups and fed the following diets: the control (C, AIN-93G), high-fat diets (HF, 40% energy from fat), and a high-fat diet supplemented with CrProp at dosages of 10 and 50 mg Cr/kg diet (HF + Cr10 and HF + Cr50, respectively). After 8 weeks, high-fat feeding led to an increased body mass, hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, a decreased serum urea concentration, accumulation of lipid droplets in hepatocytes, and increased renal Fe and splenic Cu contents. Supplementary CrProp in both dosages did not alleviate these changes but increased renal Cr content and normalized splenic Cu content in high-fat-fed rats. Supplementary CrProp does not prevent the development of insulin resistance in rats fed a high-fat diet.

Chromium(III) is considered as an essential element playing a role in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, and various chemical forms of this element are widely used in dietary supplements. A new trinuclear chromium(III) glycinate complex [Cr(3)O(NH(2)CH(2)CO(2))(6)(H(2)O)(3)](+)NO(3)(-) (CrGly), an analogue of Cr3 (trinuclear Cr(III) propionate complex) has been synthesized as a potential source of supplementary Cr. In this study, we evaluated the acute toxicity class of CrGly in Wistar rats applying the OECD 423 procedure. Male and female Wistar rats (n = 12, 6 ♀ and 6 ♂) were given by gavage either a single dose of CrGly 2,000 mg/kg body mass (equals to 300 mg Cr(III)/kg body mass; in aqueous solution) or equivalent volumes of distilled water and fed ad libitum commercial Labofeed B diet, and observed carefully for 14 days, then sacrificed to collect blood and internal organs for biochemical and histologic examination. No death cases were detected. No abnormalities in animal behavior, body mass gains, gross organ histology, or blood morphology and biochemistry were observed. The results demonstrate that LD(50) of CrGly is greater than 2,000 mg/kg when administrated orally to rat; thus, this compound appears to belong to the fifth category in the GHS system or the fourth class ("unclassified") in the EU classification system.