Female rats fed a diet with 65% less chromium before and during pregnancy produced offspring with higher body weight, body fat and central adiposity than controls. Rehabilitation to a control diet restored circulating lipids and adipocytokines but not body adiposity.
Key numbers
- Diet chromium: restricted 0.51 mg/kg diet versus control 1.56 mg/kg diet (Methods, p. 99).
- Dam plasma chromium after 12 weeks: control 1.18 ± 0.181 µg/L, restricted 0.648 ± 0.058 µg/L (mean ± SE, n = 6; Table 1, p. 99).
Methods (brief)
AIN-93G casein diets with or without the chromium salt; diet chromium by atomic absorption; offspring body composition, plasma lipids, adipocytokines and adipose gene expression.
Evidence fitness
Supports an animal finding that maternal chromium restriction alters offspring adiposity. It does not establish a human requirement or toxicity.
Limitations
Rat model; small dam groups; restricted diet still contained chromium.
Related evidence
Update history
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