Establishment of the Variation of Vitamin K Status According to Vkorc1 Point Mutations Using Rat Models

Abstract

Vitamin K is crucial for many physiological processes such as coagulation, energy metabolism, and arterial calcification prevention due to its involvement in the activation of several vitamin K-dependent proteins. During this activation, vitamin K is converted into vitamin K epoxide, which must be re-reduced by the VKORC1 enzyme. Various VKORC1 mutations have been described in humans. While these mutations have been widely associated with anticoagulant resistance, their association with a modification of vitamin K status due to a modification of the enzyme efficiency has never been considered. Using animal models with different Vkorc1 mutations receiving a standard diet or a menadione-deficient diet, we investigated this association by measuring different markers of the vitamin K status. Each mutation dramatically affected vitamin K recycling efficiency. This decrease in recycling was associated with a significant alteration of the vitamin K status, even when animals were fed a menadione-enriched diet suggesting a loss of vitamin K from the cycle due to the presence of the Vkorc1 mutation. This change in vitamin K status resulted in clinical modifications in mutated rats only when animals receive a limited vitamin K intake totally consistent with the capacity of each strain to recycle vitamin K.

Biomarkers Potency to Monitor Non-target Fauna Poisoning by Anticoagulant Rodenticides

“…Moreover, several factors influence serum under-carboxylated osteocalcin levels notably osteoblastic synthesis, hormonal status, renal function, age, sex, timing of blood sampling, and specificity of the radioimmunoassay (185)(186)(187). Recently, a study showed that under-carboxylated osteocalcin increases in resistant rodents under vitamin K deficient diet (188). But currently there is no link between osteocalcin and chronic AR exposure effects.…”