Chromium Induced Developments of Diseases and their Inhibitions by Cargos

The exposure of hexavalent chromium (Cr-VI) mainly through the inhalation, skin contact or oral administration by the environmental chromium industrial processes causes the major toxicity-induced health hazardous mortality throughout the world. Though reduced chromium (Cr-III), as an essential micronutrient, is utilized to maintain the normal blood glucose, lipid and protein profiles through the metabolism in the body to activate the action of the hormones such as insulin, the high concentration exposures of Cr-VI and Cr-III cause oxidative stress-induced DNA oxidation and adducts, DNA strand breaks and mutations, DNA-protein cross-links, membrane-lipid peroxidation and reduced/altered antioxidant/immune response activities, leading to cellular damage-related various diseases and the development of malignant cancer.

Applications of different cargos may inhibit Cr-VI or its intermediates-induced cytotoxicity, immunotoxicity, or genotoxicity through chromium-chelating and scavenging free radical reactive species, restoring antioxidant and immune response activities or arresting disease-oriented signal transductions or other pathways at cellular and molecular levels. This review mainly demonstrates the development of various diseases by chromium exposure and their inhibitions by cargos.