VITAMIN-K STATUS IN HUMAN TISSUES - TISSUE-SPECIFIC ACCUMULATION OF PHYLLOQUINONE AND MENAQUINONE-4

We measured the vitamin K status in postmortem human tissues (brain, h eart, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas) to see if there is a tissue-speci fic distribution pattern. Phylloquinone (K-1) was recovered in all tis sues with relatively high levels in liver, heart and pancreas (medians , 10.6 (4.8), 9.3 (4.2), 28.4 (12.8) pmol(ng)/g wet weight tissue); lo w levels (< 2 pmol/g) were found in brain, kidney and lung. Menaquinon e-4 (MK-4) was recovered from most of the tissues; its levels exceeded the K-1 levels in brain and kidney (median, 2.8 ng/g) and equalled K- 1 in pancreas. Liver, heart and lung were low in MK-4. The higher mena quinones, MK-6-11, were recovered in the liver samples (n 6), traces o f MK-6-9 were found in some of the heart and pancreas samples. The res ults show that in man there are tissue-specific, vitamin-g distributio n patterns comparable to those in the rat. Furthermore, the accumulati on of vitamin K in heart, brain and pancreas suggests a hitherto unrec ognized physiological function of this vitamin.