Vitamin KAnd Vitamin Kdependent Proteins In Relation To Human Health

This Special Issue Of Nutrients Focuses On Advances That Extend Our Knowledge Of The Biochemical Functions And Health Roles Played By Both The Micronutrient Vitamin KAnd Its Target Gla Proteins.  The Scope Of Potential Topics Is Wide And May Include Studies In Population And Patient Groups, Animal Models And At The Cellular Level.  Examples Include The Presentation, Diagnosis, Incidence, Causes, And Prevention Of Deficiency Syndromes, Of Which The Most Obvious Is Bleeding In Infancy, But Also Extends To Other Putative Roles Of Vitamin KSuch As In Bone And Cardiovascular Health.  In Trying To Define Extrahepatic Functions Of Vitamin KIt Is Important To Obtain Evidence Of Pathophysiological Signatures That May Derive From Chronic Suboptimal Vitamin KIntakes Or As AConsequence Of Vitamin KAntagonists.  An Important Related Question Is Whether The Pathophysiology Can Be Ameliorated Or Prevented By Judicious Vitamin KSupplementation.  Equally Important To Our Understanding Of The Human Physiology Of Vitamin KAre Studies That Define The Relative Functional Importance Of Individual Vitamers And How Differences In Their Availability And Metabolism Affect Their Biological Activity.  Recent Highlights In Metabolism Include The Delineation Of The Importance Of Vitamin KEpoxide Reductase vkor In Maintaining Vitamin KStatus And The Intriguing Hypothesis That Its Paralog Vkorlike Enzyme vkorl May Serve An Antioxidant Function.  Another Highlight Illustrating The Importance Of Metabolism To Vitamin KFunction Is The Discovery That The Enzyme Ubia Prenyltransferasecontaining Domain ubiad Participates In The Cellular Conversion Of Phylloquinone To Mk With Menadione As AMetabolic Intermediate.  We Invite Authors To Submit Reviews Or Original Research On Any Of The Above Topics.
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