Study finds vitamin K2 plays a key role in preventing the development of aneurysms



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Change in muscle cells

The study, published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis and vascular biology,Postulates that a process in the smooth muscle cells lining the blood vessels is characteristic of the development of the disease. Aneurysms develop when the extracellular matrix of the blood vessel wall weakens, allowing the vessel to dilate and eventually rupture.

In addition, the authors indicated that recent research had shown that calcification of the wall of blood vessels was also badociated with the development of aneurysms. Calcification is also a key part of the process by which blood vessels accumulate harmful plaque deposits.

The change in these muscle cells is called "phenotypic switching." Normal cells retain a contractile function, but when the disease process begins, something else happens.

"In pathological conditions, they can dedifferentiate into a synthetic phenotype, by which they secrete extracellular vesicles, proliferate and migrate to repair lesions,"The researchers wrote.

When cells switch to this mode of activity, they no longer fulfill their original function of maintaining an intact and resilient blood vessel wall, the researchers wrote.

Proteins dependent on vitamin K

In their review, the authors found that healthy vascular muscle cells secrete vitamin K-dependent proteins. It has been shown that the presence of enough of these proteins to inhibit calcium accumulation and their metabolism is inhibited when coatings blood vessels begin to enter a pathological phase.

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