Vitamin K - Vitamin K and Bone Health

Vitamin K and Bone Health

Both physiological and observational evidence indicate vitamin K plays a role in bone growth and the maintenance of bone density, but efforts to delay the onset of osteoporosis by vitamin K supplementation have proven ineffective.

Vitamin K takes part in the post-translational modification as a cofactor in γ-carboxylation of vitamin K-dependant proteins (VKDPs). VKDPs have glutamate residues (Glu). Biophysical studies have suggested supplemental vitamin K promotes osteotrophic processes and slows osteoclastic processes via calcium bonding. Study of Atkins et al. revealed phylloquinone, menatetrenone (MK4) and menadione promote in vitro mineralisaton by human primary osteoblasts. Other studies have shown vitamin K antagonists (usually a class of anticoagulants) lead to early calcification of the epiphysis and epiphysial line in mice and other animals, causing seriously decreased bone growth, due to defects in osteocalcin and matrix Gla protein. Their primary function is to prevent overcalcification of the bone and cartilage. Vitamin K is important in the process of carboxylating glutamic acid (Glu) in these proteins to gamma-carboxyglutamic acid (Gla), which is necessary for their function. Vitamin D is reported to regulate the OC transcription by osteoblast thereby showing that vitamin K and vitamin D work in tandem for the bone metabolism and development. Lian and his group discovered two nucleotide substitution regions they named "osteocalcin box" in the rat and human osteocalcin genes. They found a region 600 nucleotides immediately upstream from the transcription start site that support a 10-fold stimulated transcription of the gene by 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D.