Effects of vitamin K on liver steatosis and pancreatic lipomatosis in experimental model of metabolic syndrome

Abstract

PURPOSE:Recently new roles for vitamin K, different from that in coagulation, have been proposed, including prevention of cardiometabolic diseases. It was the aim of the present work to evaluate the impact of vitamin K treatment on the changes in liver and pancreas of rats with experimentally induced metabolic syndrome. METHODS: Four groups of rats were used, as follows: one control group fed regular rat chow; one group fed high fat, high fructose (HFHF) diet for 12 weeks to induce a metabolic syndrome (MS) and two groups with MS treated with vitamin K1 and K2 respectively. At the end of the experiment, liver tissue and pancreatic were dissected out for morphological examination. RESULTS: All groups of rats fed HFHF diet expressed liver histological changes consistent with steatosis. These alterations were more pronounced in the groups treated with vitamin K2 and K1. The pancreatic tissue of the HFHF fed animals showed similar degree of lipomatosis irrespective of treatment. CONCLUSIONS:In rats with diet-induced MS, treatment with vitamin K1 and K2 did not produce the expected morphological evidence of improvement, even tended to aggravate the liver changes. These results disagreed with other effects of vitamin K that were established.