| 1: J Bone Miner Res. 2000 Mar;15(3):515-21. | Related Articles, Links |
Vitamin K2 (menatetrenone) effectively prevents fractures and
sustains lumbar bone mineral density in osteoporosis.
Shiraki M, Shiraki Y, Aoki C, Miura M.
Research Institute and Practice for Involutional Diseases, Nagano Prefecture,
Japan.
We attempted to investigate whether vitamin K2 (menatetrenone) treatment
effectively prevents the incidence of new fractures in osteoporosis. A total of
241 osteoporotic patients were enrolled in a 24-month randomized open label
study. The control group (without treatment; n = 121) and the vitamin K2-treated
group (n = 120), which received 45 mg/day orally vitamin K2, were followed for
lumbar bone mineral density (LBMD; measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry
[DXA]) and occurrence of new clinical fractures. Serum level of Glu-osteocalcin
(Glu-OC) and menaquinone-4 levels were measured at the end of the follow-up
period. Serum level of OC and urinary excretion of deoxypyridinoline (DPD) were
measured before and after the treatment. The background data of these two groups
were identical. The incidence of clinical fractures during the 2 years of
treatment in the control was higher than the vitamin K2-treated group (chi2 =
10.935; p = 0.0273). The percentages of change from the initial value of LBMD at
6, 12, and 24 months after the initiation of the study were -1.8 +/- 0.6%, -2.4
+/- 0.7%, and -3.3 +/- 0.8% for the control group, and 1.4 +/- 0.7%, -0.1 +/-
0.6%, and -0.5 +/- 1.0% for the vitamin K2-treated group, respectively. The
changes in LBMD at each time point were significantly different between the
control and the treated group (p = 0.0010 for 6 months, p = 0.0153 for 12
months, and p = 0.0339 for 24 months). The serum levels of Glu-OC at the end of
the observation period in the control and the treated group were 3.0 +/- 0.3 ng/ml
and 1.6 +/- 0.1 ng/ml, respectively (p < 0.0001), while the serum level of OC
measured by the conventional radioimmunoassay (RIA) showed a significant rise
(42.4 +/-6.9% from the basal value) in the treated group at 24 months (18.2 +/-
6.1% for the controls;p = 0.0081). There was no significant change in urinary
DPD excretion in the treated group. These findings suggest that vitamin K2
treatment effectively prevents the occurrence of new fractures, although the
vitamin K2-treated group failed to increase in LBMD. Furthermore, vitamin K2
treatment enhances gamma-carboxylation of the OC molecule.
Publication Types:
PMID: 10750566 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]