Photo Credit: Siddharth Pandit

Vitamin K has been shown to promote would contraction and reduce the time it takes for skin to heal, but no previous studies have assessed vitamin K status in patients with psoriasis, a disease characterized by skin manifestations. Now, a new pilot study is the first to report vitamin K deficiency in patients with psoriasis. Researchers investigated vitamin K and vitamin D, which is involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, in 44 patients and 44 matched controls. Patients with psoriasis showed an increased uncarboxylated osteocalcin/carboxylated osteocalcin (ucOC/cOC) ratio—a marker of vitamin K deficiency—compared with controls. Among participants with metabolic syndrome, which can influence vitamin K status, those with psoriasis also had greater ucOC/cOC ratio than controls. Another vitamin K-dependent protein, matrix Gla protein, was lower in patients with psoriasis and metabolic syndrome than in controls with metabolic syndrome. Vitamin D concentration, however, did not differ between participants with and without psoriasis.