Location: Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center On Aging
Project Number: 8050-51000-092-002-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Mar 16, 2014
End Date: Mar 15, 2019
Objective:
LAB NAME: Vitamin K
1: To characterize dietary factors, including food composition and nutrient-nutrient interactions, and non-dietary factors, such as genetics, that contribute to the inter-individual variation in vitamin K intake, bioavailability, and utilization and vitamin K metabolite production.
1.1: To study the influence of foods and single nutrients on the distribution, bioavailability and function of different forms of vitamin K and their metabolites.
1.2: To measure key foods to monitor changes in the food supply that affect vitamin K content
1.3: Identify genetic factors involved in vitamin K metabolism.
2: Determine the role(s) and mechanism(s) of action for vitamin K beyond its essential role in coagulation, including the role of vitamin K in the prevention of abnormal non-skeletal calcification and the mechanisms of vitamin K action not currently explained by its role as an enzyme cofactor.
2.1: Determine the effects of vitamin K in the prevention of abnormal non-skeletal calcification and other chronic diseases in older adults.
2.2: Identify potential mechanism(s) of vitamin K action that are not currently explained by its role as an enzyme cofactor.
Approach:
LAB NAME: Vitamin K
Our long-term objective is to study the determinants of vitamin K bioavailability, utilization, and metabolism in order to refine vitamin K intake recommendations. Expansion of the forms of vitamin K analyzed in a selected number of foods will enhance the USDA vitamin K database, and allow us to monitor changes in different forms of vitamin K in the food supply. To identify dietary and non-dietary factors that determine how much vitamin K obtained from foods is utilized, we will apply stable isotope techniques to established and novel measures of vitamin K metabolism. Data obtained from our completed metabolic study in younger and older adults, in addition to animal studies, have helped to refine the study designs that will be used in this project plan. We will initiate a series of studies that compare the metabolism of different forms of vitamin K, and identify the impact of other nutrients on different aspects of vitamin K metabolism. To expand our observations that vitamin K may have a role in the prevention of abnormal non-skeletal calcification, we will use observational data and biological samples collected from large on-going cohorts, as well as conduct animal studies, to examine potential mechanisms beyond that of an enzyme cofactor. We will then focus on the role(s) of different forms of vitamin K in insulin resistance and inflammation using a rodent model. This is a rapidly evolving field, and novel functions of vitamin K in other cells will be considered as new information becomes available.
