{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]],"date-time":"2026-06-02T02:25:13Z","timestamp":1780367113151,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":23,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,27]],"date-time":"2025-02-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1740614400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Gnosis by Lesaffre, Lesaffre International (formerly Nattopharma ASA, Norway)"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Post-menopausal women are at an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Menaquinone-7 (MK-7) is a fat-soluble vitamin involved in coagulation and maintaining vascular health. The aim of the post hoc analysis of this one-year study is to investigate the effects of MK-7 supplementation on the vascular parameters in pre-, peri-, and post-menopausal women. Methods: In a clinical intervention trial (NCT02404519), a total of 165 women with a low vitamin K status received either 180 \u00b5g of MK-7 daily (n = 82) or a matching placebo (n = 83) for one year. Established vascular parameters were measured before and after one year of vitamin K2 supplementation. Pre-, peri-, and post-menopausal women were subdivided according to arterial stiffness, with a high b-stiffness index defined as being greater than the overall median of 9.83. Results: The post hoc analyses showed a significant decrease in desphospho-uncarboxylated matrix Gla protein (dp-ucMGP) plasma levels after MK-7 supplementation (pre\/peri, p = 0.009; post, p &lt; 0.001). MK-7 treatment significantly attenuated vascular stiffness in post-menopausal women (placebo +49.1% \u00b1 77.4; MK-7 +9.4% \u00b1 67.1; p = 0.035). Post-menopausal women with a high stiffness index showed significantly improved vascular markers after MK-7 treatment, e.g., a decreased blood pressure at brachialis (\u22123.0% \u00b1 9.0; p = 0.007) and an increased distensibility coefficient (+13.3% \u00b1 32.3; p = 0.040). Conclusions: Our results confirm that menopause affects vascular health status. Post-menopausal women with an increased stiffness benefit most from MK-7 supplementation, with a significantly improved blood pressure. Further research is needed to unravel the beneficial effects of MK-7 in post-menopausal women.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu17050815","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,27]],"date-time":"2025-02-27T08:04:44Z","timestamp":1740643484000},"page":"815","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Effects of One-Year Menaquinone-7 Supplementation on Vascular Stiffness and Blood Pressure in Post-Menopausal Women"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Femke","family":"de Vries","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM), Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0005-7419-2521","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rudolf","family":"Bittner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM), Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands"},{"name":"Research and Development Department, Gnosis by Lesaffre, Lesaffre International, 59700 Marcq-en-Baroeul, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Katarzyna","family":"Maresz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Independent Researcher, 30-376 Krakow, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fran\u00e7ois","family":"Machuron","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Data Science & Computational Biology Department, Lesaffre International, 59700 Marcq-en-Baroeul, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Olav","family":"G\u00e5ser\u00f8d","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research and Development Department, Gnosis by Lesaffre, Lesaffre International, 59700 Marcq-en-Baroeul, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5074-4679","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jean-Fran\u00e7ois","family":"Jeanne","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research and Application Department, Gnosis by Lesaffre, Lesaffre International, 59700 Marcq-en-Baroeul, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7867-6957","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Leon J.","family":"Schurgers","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM), Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands"},{"name":"Institute of Experimental Medicine and Systems Biology, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"49","DOI":"10.1016\/j.clinbiochem.2020.05.005","article-title":"Uncarboxylated matrix Gla-protein: A biomarker of vitamin K status and cardiovascular risk","volume":"83","author":"Jespersen","year":"2020","journal-title":"Clin. 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