"New Study Reveals Mechanisms of Vitamin K in Preventing Type 2 Diabetes"

2023-05-24 10:10:25

This is, according to the authors of this new study, a first in 15 years of fundamental research. In a new study, published in the journal Cell Reports (Source 1), researchers from the University of Montreal (Canada) have finally managed to identify the mechanisms explaining how vitamin K helps prevent diabetes. A discovery that could lead to new therapeutic approaches to fight type 2 diabetes.

A micronutrient known for its key role in blood coagulation, particularly in gamma-carboxylation (an enzymatic reaction essential to the process), vitamin K has been suspected for years of playing a role in many other functions of the body. Several studies have demonstrated a correlation between low levels of vitamin K and an increased risk of diabeteswithout knowing why.

Here, scientists first observed that the enzymes involved in gamma-carboxylation, and therefore in the utilization of vitamin K, were present in large quantities in pancreatic beta cells, the very ones that produce insulin, responsible for controlling glycemia (blood sugar levels).