How Vitamin K Could be the Answer to Diabetes

A recent study reveals how vitamin K can help protect against diabetes.

Highlights:

Vitamin K is a group of vitamins that the body needs for blood clotting, helping wounds to heal
Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces
A recent study has now found out how vitamin K can help prevent diabetes

Diabetes affects one in 11 people worldwide and is one of the biggest preventable causes of death worldwide. There is currently no cure for diabetes. It can only be controlled with diet, exercise, and medications.

A recent study has discovered a new role for vitamin K and gamma-carboxylation in beta cells and their possible protective role in diabetes. This is the first in 15 years. The discovery was made by scientists at Université de Montréal and its affiliated Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM) ().

Vitamin K: Could it be a Potential Treatment for Diabetes?

Vitamin K is a micronutrient known for its role in blood clotting, in particular in gamma-carboxylation, an enzymatic reaction essential to the process. It has been suspected for several years that this vitamin, and thus gamma-carboxylation, may have other functions as well.

Top 11 Foods Rich in Vitamin K and Why We Can Die in its Absence
Vitamin K is crucial for blood clotting, bone health, and heart health. Discover 11 foods that provide this vital nutrient and how deficiency can be life-threatening.

‘Can Vitamin K be the next treatment for diabetes?’

Several studies suggest a link between a reduced intake of vitamin K and an increased risk of diabetes. However, the biological mechanisms by which vitamin K protects against diabetes remained a mystery until now.

The research explains how vitamin K can help prevent diabetes and potentially find new therapeutic applications for type 2 diabetes. The study was published in Cell Reports.

Enzymes in Vitamin K are to be Credited in Preventing Diabetes

In the study they conducted, UdeM associate research professor of medicine Mathieu Ferron and his team at the IRCM discovered that the enzymes involved in gamma-carboxylation, and thus in the use of vitamin K, were abundant in pancreatic beta cells, the cells that produce the vital insulin that regulates blood sugar levels.

"Diabetes is known to be caused by a reduction in the number of beta cells or by their inability to produce enough insulin, hence our keen interest in this novel finding," said Ferron, a leading researcher in molecular biology. "In order to elucidate the cellular mechanism by which vitamin K maintains beta cell function, it was essential to determine which protein was targeted by gamma-carboxylation in these cells."

How You Chew Matters If You Have Diabetes
Chewing correctly may improve blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes.

"We were able to identify a new gamma-carboxylated protein called ERGP," added Julie Lacombe, who conducted the work in Ferron's laboratory. "Our study shows that this protein plays an important role in maintaining physiological levels of calcium in beta cells in order to prevent a disturbance of insulin secretion. Finally, we show that vitamin K through gamma-carboxylation is essential for ERGP to perform its role."

A unique vitamin K-dependent protein has been found for the first time in 15 years, opening up a new path of research in this area.

Eating Almonds can Keep Diabetes at Bay
The nutritional makeup of almonds, which contains fiber, monounsaturated fats, zinc, and magnesium, works together to help provide better glycemic control.

Reference:

Vitamin K-dependent carboxylation regulates Ca2+ flux and adaptation to metabolic stress in β cells - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37171959/)

Source-Medindia