International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research (IJVNR) is published by IMR Press from Volume 95 Issue 1 (2025). Previous articles were published by another publisher under a hybrid publishing model, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Hogrefe.
Role of vitamin K2 in bone-vascular crosstalk
1 Section of Clinical Nutrition and Nutrigenomic, Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
2 Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Agostino Gemelli General Hospital Foundation-IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
3 Comando Generale Arma Carabinieri, Direzione di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
4 General Directorate, Department of Human Policies of Basilicata Region, Potenza, Italy.
5 Department of Surgical Sciences, School of Applied Medical-Surgical Sciences, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
Abstract
Vitamin K (VK) is a fat-soluble vitamin that is indispensable for the activation of vitamin K-dependent proteins (VKDPs). It has been shown to play an important role in the proper calcium deposit at the bone level, hindering that on the vascular walls. The deficiency of this vitamin in European populations is frequent and unknown. It is related to several factors, poor dietary intake, altered intestinal absorption or altered production by bacteria, indicating possible dysbiosis. For Vitamin K2 (VK2), there is currently no official reference daily intake (RDI). However, the effects of VK2 on the improvement of health in cardiovascular diseases, on bone metabolism, on chronic kidney diseases have been the subject of research in recent decades. The microbiota in the gastrointestinal tract plays an important role: Bacteroides are primarily capable of synthetizing very long chain forms of menaquinones and, in addition to the bacteria present in the intestinal flora, VK2 is also produced by bacteria used in food fermentation processes. This review provides an update on the current literature regarding the origin of VK2 and its implications in what is called the “calcium paradox”, namely the lack of calcium in the bone and its storage in the wall of the vessel.
Keywords
- Matrix Gla protein
- Menaquinone-7
- Vitamin K2
- calcium paradox
- cardiovascular disease risk
- microbiota
- vascular calcification
