title: Conversion of dietary phylloquinone to tissue menaquinone-4 in rats is not dependent on gut bacteria.
abstract: The ability of male rats to accumulate menaquinone-4 (MK-4) in tissues when fed a vitamin K-deficient diet supplemented with intraperitoneal phylloquinone (K) as the sole source of vitamin K for 14 d was assessed. In both conventionally housed controls and gnotobiotic rats, supplementation with the equivalent of 1500 microg vitamin K/kg diet increased (P < 0.001) tissue MK-4 concentrations above those of controls fed a vitamin K-deficient diet. MK-4 concentrations were approximately 5 ng/g (11 pmol/g) in liver, 14 ng/g in heart, 17 ng/g in kidney, 50 ng/g in brain and 250 ng/g in mandibular salivary glands of gnotobiotic rats. MK-4 concentrations in conventionally housed rats were higher than in gnotobiotic rats in heart (P < 0.01), brain (P < 0.01) and kidney (P < 0.05) but lower in salivary gland (P < 0.05). Cultures of a kidney-derived cell line (293) converted K to the expoxide of MK-4 in a manner that was dependent on both time of incubation and concentration of vitamin K in the media. A liver-derived cell line (H-35) was less active in carrying out this conversion. These data offer conclusive proof that the tissue-specific formation of MK-4 from K is a metabolic transformation that does not require bacterial transformation to menadione as an intermediate in the process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutritional Sciences, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
authors.forename: R T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Davidson
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Foley
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Engelke
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Suttie
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001207:Asepsis; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004032:Diet; D006801:Humans; D007274:Injections, Intraperitoneal; D007422:Intestines / Q000382:microbiology; D007668:Kidney / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D008099:Liver / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014812:Vitamin K / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000378:metabolism*; D010837:Vitamin K 1 / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014812:Vitamin K; D010837:Vitamin K 1