ChromeMate May Influence Genes that Promote Muscle Development & Lean Body Mass.

A 2006 study published in the journal Physiological Genomic, (27: 370-379, 2006), confirms that Chromium as Polynicotinate (i.e. ChromeMate®) improves lipid profiles and promotes lean body mass. Researchers investigated the effects of ChromeMate supplementation in a hybrid strain of mice known as Lepr-db, which are born obese and diabetic and typically develop abnormally high blood glucose and lipid profiles at an age of 30 days. Lepr-db mice provide an appropriate model for studying Metabolic Syndrome, a condition of concern in human health that is characterized by abdominal obesity, poor insulin function, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high triglyceride and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, and low levels of HDL (good) cholesterol. Researchers found that ChromeMate supplementation significantly lowered total cholesterol, LDL and triglyceride levels, and increased beneficial HDL levels. Furthermore, Gene Microarray Analysis (using more than 45,000 sets of mouse genome), in conjunction with RT-PCR, demonstrated that ChromeMate up-regulates (activates) the expression of four muscle specific genes within the subcutaneous fat. These genes provide the signal for muscle development in the fat tissue, indicating that ChromeMate enhances the production of lean body mass. ChromeMate also down-regulated (de-activated) genes that encode CIDEA and UCP1, key components of brown fat tissue. CIDEA is a suspected obesity gene since mice that do not possess this gene are resistant to diet-induced obesity and diabetes. ChromeMate was also found to down-regulated TTP, a gene that provides antioxidant support to subcutaneous fat cells, suggesting that ChromeMate may help terminate antioxidant support to and ultimately kill fat cells. Researchers concluded that ChromeMate may help protect against the risk factors associated with Metabolic Syndrome while triggering genetic signals that help increase lean body mass.