Carboxylated Calcium-Binding Proteins and Vitamin K

Abstract

FIFTY years ago, Heinrik Dam, while a doctoral student under Rudolf Schönheimer at the University of Freiberg, was investigating cholesterol bio-synthesis in chicks. He prepared fat-free diets by extracting the feed with organic solvents and noted that the chicks raised on this diet for about three weeks acquired hemorrhagic disease. Returning to Denmark, Dam and his colleagues concluded that absence of a fat-soluble factor caused a defect in blood coagulation through the loss of functional prothrombin. No other vitamin or nutrient known at that time was able to replace the fat-soluble component, which he called vitamin K (Koagulations Vitamin).In . . .