News Release
For immediate release
December 7, 2006
Vitamin
K2 Shown to Reverse Arterial Calcifications
in a New
Study in the Journal Blood.
PL Thomas & Company (PLT)
of Morristown, NJ and Natto Pharma, Norway today announced new
findings for Vitamin K2 with significant potential benefits for
cardiovascular health. In the study, scientists at the
Cardiovascular Research Institute (CARIM) and VitaK, Maastricht
University, The
Netherlands, demonstrated a reversal of induced arterial
calcification in an animal model. The study is available on the
website of the high ranked journal
Blood under the First Edition Papers section.
The study will be published in the regular print and online
issues of Blood in early 2007.
Arterial calcification is an important
independent risk factor for the development of health concerns
including atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, stroke, and
renal disease. It is well established that individuals with
marked arterial calcification have an unfavorable prognosis
compared to those with no or mild calcification. Therefore, the
prevention or reversal of arterial calcification is what
researchers and doctors aim for because it may lead to improved
outcomes.
“The medical community used to believe that
calcification passively occurred in the end stages of
cardiovascular disease,” said lead researcher Leon Schurgers.
“However, in the last ten years we have learned that Vitamin
K-dependent proteins are directly involved in the inhibition of
vascular calcification, and that Vitamin K2 is necessary to
activate these proteins. This study demonstrates a significant
potential role for Vitamin K2 in cardiovascular health.”
It has been previously shown in the
Journal of Nutrition
that high Vitamin K2 consumption was linked to lower
coronary heart disease, less aortic calcification and lower all
cause mortality. In this study, 4,800 elderly subjects with no
history of heart disease were followed for 10 years, and it was
found that 45 micrograms/day of natural vitamin K2 resulted in
50% decreased arterial calcification and a similarly decreased
cardiovascular mortality risk.
Induced arterial calcification has been
shown to be inhibited completely by vitamin K2 in vivo. In the
new study, the researchers looked at the potential to regress
calcification. Arterial calcification was induced in rats by
interfering in the vitamin K-metabolism, by adding the vitamin
K-antagonist warfarin to their diets. Vitamin K acts directly
on matrix Gla-protein which is the strongest inhibitor of
arterial calcification presently known. The rats were divided
into two groups, a control group with vitamin K added to the
diet, and a warfarin treated group to induced calcifications.
After six weeks of treatment with warfarin, the rats had
developed significant calcifications. At this point, the
warfarin treated rats were divided into four groups and fed a
standard diet plus 1/ Warfarin, 2/ vitamin K1 at normal dose, 3/
Vitamin K1 at high dose, and 4/ vitamin K2 at high dose.
During the second six week period, the calcifications in the warfarin
treated group continued linearly, and remarkably, in the group
receiving a normal dose of K1 continued comparably,
demonstrating that the normal amount of vitamin K in the diet
had no benefit.
In contrast, high vitamin K intake (both K1 and
K2) not only blocked the progress of further calcium
accumulation, but led to an over 37 % reduction of previously
accumulated arterial calcium precipitates within 6 weeks. It
is interesting to note that in the high K1 group, the vitamin K1
converted into vitamin K2 to such an extent that tissue
concentrations were similar to the
K2
supplemented group.
Additionally, the regression of arterial calcification was accompanied by
restoration of arterial distensibility, or elasticity, in the
high vitamin K groups to a similar level as in the control rats.
According to Schurgers, “The effect of K1 and the conversion rate of K1
to
K2 was due to the extremely high dose of K vitamins used in
this model. This would be probably less in a normal diet, even
with supplemental K1. In contrast, the
Rotterdam study showed a significant protective benefit with
Natural Vitamin K2 at just 45mcg per day, whereas K1 had no
correlation at all.”
“Warfarin also inhibits conversion of K1 to
K2, “ continued Schurgers. “This is of significance as we and
others have reported that the use of coumarin-type
anticoagulants is associated with increased cardiac valve
calcification.”
PLT offers a natural vitamin K2 under the tradename MenaQ7 in
alliance with Natto Pharma, Norway.
About MenaQ7
MenaQ7 provides Natural Vitamin K2 as an
extract of natto, a fermented soy food from
Japan. Natto is particularly rich in the highly bio-available
form of vitamin K2 called menaquinone-7 (MK-7).
About PL Thomas
PL Thomas, a New Jersey-based ingredient
supplier, offers fifty years of innovation in securing reliable,
high quality raw materials for the food/functional food and
nutrition industries.
PLT is a one-stop resource for application solutions, current
industry information and technical service, and specializes in
water-soluble gums and clinically-supported botanical extracts.
About Natto Pharma
NattoPharma, Norway is the exclusive international supplier of
MenaQ7 natural Vitamin K2. NattoPharma has entered into a
multi-year Research and Development program to substantiate and
discover the health benefits of natural vitamin K2 for
applications in the exciting marketplace for functional food and
health food supplements.
For more information, contact
Eric Anderson at
973-984-0900,
x215 or email
eric@plthomas.com.
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