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A stable isotope method for the simultaneous measurement of vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) kinetics and absorption

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 62, pages 1273–1281 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Objectives:

To measure uptake and disposal kinetics and absolute absorption of vitamin K1 using two stable isotope-labelled forms of vitamin K1.

Subjects:

Ten subjects (nine women and one man) aged between 22 and 31 years, with a mean (±standard deviation) body mass index of 22.5±2.4 kg/m2. Subjects took capsules containing 3 μg of methyl-13C vitamin K1, three times a day for six days to reach a steady state for plasma vitamin K1 isotopic enrichment. On day seven, subjects were given an intravenous dose of Konakion MM to measure disposal kinetics and at the same time, a capsule containing 4 μg of ring-D4 vitamin K1 to measure absorption. Plasma vitamin K1 concentration was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography and isotopic composition by gas chromatography mass spectrometry.

Results:

The disposal kinetics of the intravenous dose of vitamin K1 were resolved into two exponentials with half-times of 0.22 (±0.14) and 2.66 (±1.69) h. Absorption of oral, deuterated vitamin K1 was 13 (±9) %.

Conclusions:

Two-compartmental kinetic parameters observed in this study are similar to those obtained previously using radioactive tracers, but there may be additional slow-turnover body pools acting as stores of vitamin K1. The kinetic parameters determined from the intravenous dose allowed determination of the absolute absorption of vitamin K1 from a bolus oral dose.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the UK Food Standards Agency for funding this work (project number N05050) and thank Dr Martin Shearer for his helpful comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MRC Human Nutrition Research, Elsie Widdowson Laboratory, Cambridge, UK

    K S Jones, L J C Bluck, L Y Wang & W A Coward

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  1. K S Jones
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  2. L J C Bluck
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  3. L Y Wang
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  4. W A Coward
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to K S Jones.

Additional information

Contributors: KSJ, LJCB and WAC designed the study. KSJ was responsible for implementation, volunteer recruitment, sample collection and isotope ratio analysis. LYW performed the HPLC analysis. KSJ wrote the manuscript with LJCB and WAC.

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Jones, K., Bluck, L., Wang, L. et al. A stable isotope method for the simultaneous measurement of vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) kinetics and absorption. Eur J Clin Nutr 62, 1273–1281 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602859

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602859

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