Vitamin K enhances the production of brain sulfatides during remyelination

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a devastating neurological disease, which is characterized by multifocal demyelinating lesions in the central nervous system. The most abundant myelin lipids are galactosylceramides and their sulfated form, sulfatides, which together account for about 27% of the total dry weight of myelin. In this study we investigated the role of vitamin K in remyelination, by using an animal model for MS, the cuprizone model. Demyelination was induced in C57Bl6/J mice, by feeding them a special diet containing 0.3% cuprizone (w/w) for 6 weeks. After 6 weeks, cuprizone was removed from the diet and mice were allowed to remyelinate for either 1 or 3 weeks, in the absence or presence of vitamin K (i.p. phylloquinone, 2mg, three times per week). Vitamin K enhanced the production of total brain sulfatides, after both 1 week and 3 weeks of remyelination (n = 5, P-values were <0.0001), when compared with the control group. To determine whether or not there is a synergistic effect between vitamins K and D for the production of brain sulfatides, we employed a similar experiment as above. Vitamin K also increased the production of individual brain sulfatides, including d18:1/18:0, d18:1/20:0, d18:1/24:0, and d18:1/24:1 after 3 weeks of remyelination, when compared to the control group. In addition, vitamin D enhanced the production of total brain sulfatides, as well as d18:1/18:0, d18:1/24:0, and d18:1/24:1 sulfatides after 3 weeks of remyelination, but no synergistic effect between vitamins K and D for the production of total brain sulfatides was observed.