At the end of 6 months, the mice were euthanized and the researchers studied tissue samples from the mice's kidneys. They found that 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. The implication is that the chromium picolinate may have reduced inflammation in the treated diabetic group by affecting IDO, IL-6, and IL-7.

Mahmood Mozaffari, DMD, PhD, professor in the Medical College of Georgia Department of Oral Biology and lead author of the study, noted that the results are preliminary and that 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."

Source: American Physiological Society