El Asmar Margueritta S, Naoum Joseph J, Arbid Elias J
School of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
Department of Surgery, Section of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, University Medical Center Rizk Hospital, Lebanese American University, P.O. Box 11-3288, Beirut, Lebanon.
Oman Med J. 2014 May;29(3):172-7. doi: 10.5001/omj.2014.44.
Vascular calcification, a cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, is an actively regulated process involving vitamin K dependent proteins (VKDPs) among others. Vitamin K is an essential micronutrient, present in plants and animal fermented products that plays an important role as a cofactor for the post-translational γ-carboxylation of glutamic acid residues in a number of proteins. These VKDPs require carboxylation to become biologically active, and they have been identified as having an active role in vascular cell migration, angiogenesis and vascular calcification. This paper will review the process of vascular calcification and delineate the role that vitamin K2 plays in the modulation of that process, through the activation of VKDPs. One such VKDP is Matrix Gla Protein (MGP), which when activated inhibits osteogenic factors, thereby inhibiting vascular and soft tissue calcification.
血管钙化是心血管疾病发病和死亡的一个原因，是一个受多种因素积极调控的过程，其中涉及维生素K依赖蛋白（VKDPs）等。维生素K是一种必需的微量营养素，存在于植物和动物发酵产品中，作为许多蛋白质中谷氨酸残基翻译后γ羧化的辅助因子发挥重要作用。这些VKDPs需要羧化才能具有生物活性，并且已被确定在血管细胞迁移、血管生成和血管钙化中发挥积极作用。本文将综述血管钙化的过程，并阐述维生素K2通过激活VKDPs在调节该过程中所起的作用。一种这样的VKDP是基质Gla蛋白（MGP），当其被激活时可抑制成骨因子，从而抑制血管和软组织钙化。
