Three patients presented with encephalopathies: an undiagnosed degenerative disease of the brain, a degenerative cerebral disease in a patient with a myeloma but without a myelomatous deposit in the CNS and a malignant astrocytoma. Perivascular pallidal deposits (vascular siderosis) containing chromium, phosphorus and calcium plus sometimes traces of other elements were present in the three cas...

Chromium has two main valence states: hexavalent chromium (Cr[VI]) and trivalent chromium (Cr[III]). Cr(VI), a well-established human carcinogen, can enter cells by way of a sulfate/phosphate anion-transport system, and then be reduced to lower-valence intermediates consisting of pentavalent chromium (Cr[V]), tetravalent chromium (Cr[IV]) or Cr(III) via cellular reductants. These intermediates ...

The total content of chromium in natural waters does not generally exceed several μg/l. Thus, it is obvious that various forms of chromium will occur at the levels of tenths or hundredths of μg/l. Their determination requires the application of a sufficiently sensitive method, but its specificity has an important role to play in the case of chemical individuals or selectivity in regard to speci...

Chromium is essential in organism e.g., for the correct metabolism of glucose (an ingredient of the glucose tolerance factor ñ GTF), but it is also a toxic metal. Toxicity of chromium depends closely on its valence and is connected substantially with its oxidative properties. Cr(VI) is classified by IARC as carcinogenous for people (1, 2). Scutellaria baicalensis is a Chinese plant rich in flav...

The glucose tolerance factor is a dietary agent required in rats for maintenance of normal removal rates of glucose from the blood (2). Recently, we have identified trivalent chromium as the active ingredient (3). GTFl is present in natural diets, for instance table scraps or McCollum’s wheat-casein diet, whereas To&a yeast diets, casein-sucrose diets, and even commercial laboratory chows were ...

A critical appraisal of single-step extraction procedures of chromium species from soil was done in terms of their selectivity towards Cr(III) and Cr(VI) species. Samples of natural mineral and organic soil and samples of soil enriched with different chromium compounds of various solubility (in liquid or solid form) were used to simulate contamination of soil by liquid and solid wastes. The eff...

Objectives: Exposure to chromium, the transition element found in many compounds of earth’s crust, leads to various health hazards including cancer, dermatitis, damage of liver and kidneys, and reproductive toxicity in both male and female. Toxic effect of chronic exposure to chromium at low environmentally relevant dose is recently recognized and less studied. In the present study, we evaluate...