Effect of chromium (III) picolinate on cortisol and DHEAs secretion in H295R human adrenocortical cells

Abstract

Dietary chromium (III) picolinate (CP) effects on steroid hormones have been reported in various experimental animals. However, the effects of CP on adrenal steroidogenesis are uncertain. Therefore, the objective of our study was to determine the effects of CP on cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAs) secretion from H295R cells, a cell line derived from human adrenocortical cells. In experiment 1, 24 hr of exposure to CP dose dependently (0, 0.1, 1, 10, 100, and 200 μM) increased cortisol secretion (p<0.05). When forskolin (10 μM) was included in the incubation media, CP had both a linear (p<0.001) and quadratic (p<0.001) effect on cortisol secretion with the highest cortisol secretion 0.1 μM of CP and the lowest at 200 μM of CP. In experiment 2, 48 hr exposure to CP (200 μM) decreased cortisol (p<0.05) release from forskolin-stimulated cells during a 24 hr of collection period. Additionally, 1 μM of CP increased DHEAs (p<0.05) secretion from these cells. In experiment 3, 48 hr exposure to CP (100 μM) decreased cortisol (p<0.05) and DHEAs (p<0.01) from forskolin-stimulated cells during a 24 hr collection period. In experiment 4, 24 hr exposure to forskolin followed by 24 hr exposure to both froskolin and CP (100 μM) also decreased both cortisol (p<0.001) and DHEAs (p<0.001) secretion. This study suggests that at high concentrations, CP inhibits aspects of steroidogenesis in agonist-stimulated adrenocortical cells.