Relationship between acute insulin response and vitamin K intake in healthy young male volunteers

To evaluate the effects of vitamin K (VK) on pancreatic function, especially on acute insulin response, 25 healthy young male volunteers were given an oral load of 75 g of glucose, and their mean daily VK intake was estimated by a one-week food check list. After excluding low (<20) and high (> or =25) body mass index (BMI) subjects, the remaining 16 participants were divided into three semi-equal groups according to VK intake. Blood VK status of the low VK intake group tended to be poorer than that of the high intake group (median of 5 samples: prothrombin time; 12.5 vs 12.2s and protein-induced VK absence-factor-II; 23 vs 15 mAU/ml), but fasting plasma glucose status was not markedly different between both groups: [plasma glucose (PG); 87 vs 86 mg/dl, immunoreactive insulin (IRI); 6.7 vs 5.3 microU/ml, HbA1c; 4.8 vs 4.9%]. However, at 30 min after glucose loading, PG of the low VK intake group tended to be higher than those of the high intake group (160 vs 145 mg/dl) and IRI was lower (36.1 vs 52.3 microU/ml). Insulinogenic index (incremental IRI/incremental PG, 0-30 min) of the low VK intake group was significantly lower than that of the high intake group (0.4 vs 0.9). These results suggested that VK may play an important role on the acute insulin response in glucose tolerance.