Does exposure of pregnant mice to chromium picolinate result in skeletal defects in their offspring?
High maternal oral exposures to chromium picolinate can cause morphological defects in developing offspring of mice.
The propositus had normal von Willebrand factor (VWF):ristocetin cofactor activity (RCo) and high VWF antigen (VWF:Ag) values, with a low VWF:RCo/VWF:Ag ratio (0.51). No abnormalities were found in his daughter, except for the reduced triplet structure in plasma VWF and diminished ultralarge VWF (ULVWF) multimers in platelets. Three mutations were identified in the propositus: 604C>T (R202W), 4748G>A (R1583Q), and 2546G>A (C849Y). The amounts of secreted recombinant VWF (rVWF) were apparently increased for R202W (130%), R202W-R1583Q (131%), and R202W-R1583Q/WT (121%), reduced for C849Y (72%) and C849Y/WT (83%), and normal for R1583Q (107%) and R202W-R1583Q/C849Y (102%). In cell lysates, higher values were found in association with the C849Y mutation. A normal multimeric pattern was found in R1583Q rVWF, mainly dimers in R202W rVWF, and intermediate molecular weight multimers in C849Y rVWF. Hybrid R202W-R1583Q/WT and C849Y/WT rVWFs had a nearly normal multimeric pattern, whereas in hybrid R202W-R1583Q/C849Y rVWF there was a loss of large/intermediate multimers.