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Absorption, excretion and retention of 51Cr from labelled Cr-(III)-picolinate in rats

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Abstract

The bioavailability of chromium from Cr-picolinate (CrPic3) and Cr-chloride (CrCl3) was studied in rats using 51Cr-labelled compounds and whole-body-counting. The intestinal absorption of Cr was twice as high from CrPic3 (1.16% vs 0.55%) than from CrCl3, however most of the absorbed 51Cr from CrPic3 was excreted into the urine within 24 h. After i.v. or i.p. injection, the whole-body retention curves fitted well to a multiexponential function, demonstrating that plasma chromium is in equilibrium with three pools. For CrPic3, a large pool exists with a very rapid exchange (T 1/2 = <0.5 days), suggesting that CrPic3 is absorbed as intact molecule, from which the main part is directly excreted by the kidney before degradation of the chromium complex in the liver can occur. CrCl3 is less well absorbed but the rapid exchange pool is much smaller, resulting in even higher Cr concentrations in tissue such as muscle and fat. However, 1–3 days after application, the relative distribution of 51Cr from both compounds was similar in all tissues studied, indicating that both compounds contribute to the same storage pool. In summary, the bioavailability of CrPic3 in rats is not superior compared to CrCl3.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ulrich Quast for reading the manuscript. Parts of the data have been included in the medical thesis of Karin Kottwitz, at the University Hamburg, Germany.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Molekulare Zellbiologie, Zentrum für Experimentelle Medizin, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany

    Karin Kottwitz, Niels Laschinsky, Roland Fischer & Peter Nielsen

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  1. Karin Kottwitz
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  2. Niels Laschinsky
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  3. Roland Fischer
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  4. Peter Nielsen
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Correspondence to Peter Nielsen.

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Kottwitz, K., Laschinsky, N., Fischer, R. et al. Absorption, excretion and retention of 51Cr from labelled Cr-(III)-picolinate in rats. Biometals 22, 289–295 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-008-9165-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-008-9165-4

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