Serum insulin and serum lipid profiles of a selected group of Southern Ontario tannery workers with elevated serum and urine chromium concentrations

Abstract

This study compares the serum insulin and lipid profiles of a group of Southern Ontario tannery workers, with elevated serum and urine Cr levels, with those of men not exposed to industrial chromium (III) oxide. Fasting blood samples were obtained from 72 male tannery workers (TW) (mean age +/- SD = 36 +/- 12 y) and from 52 control subjects (CS) (mean age +/- SD = 41 +/- 13 y), matched by age, sex, race, and socioeconomic group. There were no significant differences between the two groups for median serum insulin (TW = 8 microM/mL vs CS = 9 microM/mL), total cholesterol (TC) (TW = 201 mg/dL vs CS 209 mg/dL), triglycerides (TG) (TW = 131 mg/dL vs 114 mg/dL) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (TW = 45 mg/dL vs CS = 43 mg/dL), or, in the calculated median values for low density lipoprotein cholesterol (TW = 117 mg/dL vs CS = 134 mg/dL), percent HDL-C (TW = 23% vs CS = 22%), and the cholesterol atherogenic ratio (TC/HDL-C) (TW = 4.3 vs CS = 4.5). Results of this study, therefore, demonstrate that absorption of trivalent Cr compounds, arising from industrial exposure, has no significant effect on serum insulin and lipid profiles.