Vitamin K2 for Bone Health

Bone Health — scientific infographic poster

Vitamin K is the cofactor that carboxylates osteocalcin, a protein made by osteoblasts that binds calcium and hydroxyapatite in bone; the carboxylation chemistry is well described, although osteocalcin's exact function in bone has yet to be fully elucidated (Gundberg 2012). The clinical evidence is mixed. In Japan, pharmacological doses of MK-4 (menatetrenone, 45 mg a day in the trials) are used to treat osteoporosis; early Japanese trials reported fewer fractures, but the 4,378-woman OF study found no difference in new vertebral fractures on its primary endpoint (Inoue 2009), and several of the Japanese papers behind the large pooled fracture reductions have since been retracted or flagged. In Western populations, nutritional-dose MK-7 trials (180–375 mcg a day) produced one positive three-year bone-density result (Knapen 2013) and three neutral results (Emaus 2010; Rønn 2016, 2021), and a trial of high-dose K1 (ECKO) did not slow bone-density loss. The 2019 update of the main meta-analysis judged the fracture evidence insufficient to confirm a benefit (Mott 2019). This page sets out the mechanism, the Japanese data and their integrity problems, the Western data, and the negative trials side by side.


Table of Contents

  1. How Vitamin K2 Acts on Bone
  2. Osteocalcin: The Gla Protein at the Center
  3. Undercarboxylated Osteocalcin as a Risk Marker
  4. The Japanese MK-4 (Menatetrenone) Osteoporosis Trials
  5. The Western MK-7 Trials (Nutritional Dose)
  6. The Negative Trials: ECKO, Emaus and Rønn
  7. What the Evidence Actually Supports
  8. Working With Vitamin D, Calcium, and Magnesium
  9. Doses Used in Trials, Forms, and Food Sources
  10. Cautions and the Warfarin Interaction
  11. Key Research Papers
  12. External Resources
  13. Connections
  14. Featured Videos

How Vitamin K2 Acts on Bone

Bone is not a static mineral rock; it is a living tissue that is continuously torn down by osteoclasts and rebuilt by osteoblasts. When osteoblasts lay down new bone, they secrete a protein called osteocalcin (also called bone Gla protein). Osteocalcin carries three vitamin K-dependent Gla residues that are critical for its structure, which appears to regulate the maturation of bone mineral (Gundberg 2012).

But freshly made osteocalcin cannot bind calcium. It has to be chemically activated first, and that activation is a vitamin-K-dependent carboxylation. The enzyme gamma-glutamyl carboxylase, using vitamin K as an essential cofactor, converts three specific glutamate residues in osteocalcin into gamma-carboxyglutamate (Gla) residues. Each Gla residue carries an extra negative charge; together they form calcium-binding sites that let osteocalcin dock onto hydroxyapatite. Without enough vitamin K, osteocalcin is produced but remains undercarboxylated — present in the blood, but structurally unable to do its calcium-binding job in bone.

In a comparison in healthy volunteers, the long-chain menaquinone MK-7 had a much longer half-life than vitamin K1, accumulated to 7- to 8-fold higher serum levels during prolonged intake, and produced more complete carboxylation of osteocalcin (Schurgers 2007). That longer circulation is one reason K2 is discussed for bone more than K1, even though both forms can drive the same carboxylation chemistry. The distinction between the forms is covered on the K2 vs K1 page.

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Osteocalcin: The Gla Protein at the Center

Osteocalcin sits at the heart of nearly every claim about K2 and bone, so it is worth understanding precisely what it does and does not do. Carboxylated osteocalcin binds calcium ions and hydroxyapatite, and its structure appears to regulate the maturation of bone mineral (Gundberg 2012) — a role that may bear on bone quality (the structural competence of bone) as well as on bone quantity (mineral density measured by DXA). In two MK-4 trials, effects on fractures or on bone-strength indices were reported without a gain in measured bone mineral density: Shiraki 2000 reported fewer clinical fractures while lumbar density in the treated group “failed to increase”, and Knapen 2007 reported higher bone mineral content and femoral-neck width with no change in DXA bone density. That pattern is consistent with, though not proof of, a bone-quality mechanism.

Animal and cell studies suggest that undercarboxylated osteocalcin may act as a hormone in glucose metabolism; a 2012 review found that the limited human data do not support this hypothesis and that osteocalcin's specific function in bone and glucose metabolism has yet to be elucidated (Gundberg 2012). That is a separate research area; for bone health, the calcium-binding, matrix-organizing role is the relevant one. The carboxylation status of osteocalcin — how much of it is fully activated — depends directly on vitamin K availability, which is why osteocalcin serves both as a mechanism and as a measurable marker of vitamin K status (Gundberg 2012).

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Undercarboxylated Osteocalcin as a Risk Marker

Because undercarboxylated osteocalcin (ucOC) rises when vitamin K is insufficient, it is measured in blood as a functional marker of vitamin K status — as a percentage of total osteocalcin, because uncorrected ucOC also reflects bone-formation activity (Gundberg 2012). Prospective studies in elderly French women found that higher ucOC predicted hip fracture, first in institutionalized women (Szulc 1993) and then in the EPIDOS cohort of independently living women over 75, where the association held after adjustment for femoral-neck bone density (odds ratio 1.8; Vergnaud 1997). In a dose-finding study in adults aged 19–36, including a randomized two-week substudy of 100 people, vitamin K1 supplements lowered the percentage of ucOC dose-dependently, and the authors concluded that about 1,000 micrograms a day was required for maximal carboxylation (Binkley 2002). The marker chain therefore runs: more vitamin K → more carboxylated osteocalcin → lower ucOC.

The honest caveat is that a biomarker moving in the right direction is not the same as a fracture being prevented. ucOC responds to supplementation dependably; whether normalizing it translates into fewer real-world fractures in well-nourished people is exactly the question the clinical trials below were built to answer — and they do not all agree. A 2012 review concluded that clinical trials do not provide overall support for the suggestion that vitamin K supplementation of the general population will reduce bone loss or fracture risk (Gundberg 2012).

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The Japanese MK-4 (Menatetrenone) Osteoporosis Trials

The largest reported fracture reductions for vitamin K2 come from Japan, where pharmacological doses of MK-4 (menatetrenone) are used in the treatment of osteoporosis (Linus Pauling Institute, below). The Shiraki trial below gave 45 mg per day (Shiraki 2000) — a dose measured in milligrams, whereas the MK-7 supplement trials further down used micrograms — a distinction that matters when reading the results.

The open-label randomized trial by Shiraki and colleagues (2000) assigned 241 patients with osteoporosis to 45 mg/day MK-4 or no treatment for two years. At 24 months lumbar bone mineral density had changed by −0.5% in the treated group and −3.3% in the control group, and clinical fractures were less frequent with treatment. The authors noted that the treated group “failed to increase” in lumbar density.

The largest Japanese trial came out differently. The OF study, an open-label trial with blinded evaluation, randomised 4,378 osteoporotic postmenopausal women aged 50 or over to calcium alone or calcium plus menatetrenone. The primary endpoint, new vertebral fractures over 36 months, did not differ significantly between the groups; new clinical fractures over 48 months were lower with menatetrenone, but not significantly. Women with at least five vertebral fractures at baseline had fewer new vertebral fractures with menatetrenone, and adverse events and adverse reactions were more frequent in the menatetrenone group. The authors concluded that menatetrenone “was not effective for preventing vertebral fractures in the full analysis set”, while the results suggested it may prevent them in more advanced osteoporosis (Inoue 2009).

A 2006 review by Iwamoto, Takeda and Sato stated that menatetrenone reduces the incidence of vertebral fractures with only modest effects on bone density, and described bone-quality effects in rats (Iwamoto 2006). In 2020 the journal published an expression of concern, because the review cites publications by Drs. Iwamoto and Sato that have since been retracted or are being investigated for misconduct. Several of this group's vitamin K2 bone papers have been retracted: a 2005 trial in women with Alzheimer's disease, retracted in 2018 at the corresponding author's request because it contains fabricated clinical trial data (Sato 2005); a 2011 hip-fracture trial in Alzheimer's disease, retracted for scientific misconduct (Sato 2011); and a 2004 review of vitamin K2 and osteoporosis, retracted in 2021 because its text, data and some figures came from sources retracted or under investigation for data fabrication and falsification (Iwamoto 2004).

Cockayne and colleagues (2006) pooled the 7 randomized trials that reported fracture data — all of them Japanese and all using menaquinone — and reported substantially lower odds of vertebral, hip and nonvertebral fractures. In 2018 the authors and the journal published a caution to readers: 3 of the included articles came from a single centre whose trial data have since been found to be problematic or retracted, and readers were asked to take into account only a sensitivity analysis that excluded them. Retraction Watch records the notice as an expression of concern, so the original pooled fracture figures are not repeated here. A later meta-analysis of 19 randomised trials of vitamin K2 with 6,759 postmenopausal participants found improved vertebral bone density with K2 in women with osteoporosis but not in women without it; pooling the 7 trials with fracture data showed no significant difference (RR 0.63, p = 0.08), which became significant only after removing the study causing heterogeneity (RR 0.50), and the K2 groups seemed to have a higher adverse-reaction rate (RR 1.22, p = 0.06) (Huang 2015); it was published before the 2018–2025 integrity notices. The Cockayne group's 2019 update, written after the integrity of some of the earlier evidence had been questioned, found lower odds of any clinical fracture with vitamin K (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.55–0.95), but restricting the analysis to trials at low risk of bias gave an OR of 0.76 (0.58–1.01), and there was no difference in vertebral fractures (OR 0.96). It concluded that for postmenopausal or osteoporotic patients there is no evidence that vitamin K affects bone mineral density or vertebral fractures, and that it may reduce clinical fractures but the evidence is insufficient to confirm this (Mott 2019). A 2020 correction adjusted every estimate in that review that had included the Yamaguchi Osteoporosis Prevention Study, following published concerns about that study's integrity (Avenell 2020). The Yamaguchi study, which compared vitamin K with other osteoporosis treatments, was retracted in 2025: the journal stated that the evidence “strongly argues for scientific misconduct” (Ishida 2004). So the Japanese fracture data were obtained with a high pharmacological dose in a specific population, the largest trial was negative on its primary endpoint, and part of the evidence base has been retracted or flagged.

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The Western MK-7 Trials (Nutritional Dose)

Western trials have mostly tested the long-chain menaquinone MK-7 at microgram doses; compared with vitamin K1, MK-7 has a very long half-life and produced more complete osteocalcin carboxylation (Schurgers 2007). The main positive study is the three-year randomized, placebo-controlled trial by Knapen and colleagues (2013): 244 healthy postmenopausal women took 180 mcg/day MK-7 or placebo. MK-7 improved vitamin K status and significantly decreased the age-related decline in bone mineral content and density at the lumbar spine and femoral neck, but not at the total hip; femoral-neck bone-strength indices were favourably affected, and loss of vertebral height in the lower thoracic spine was smaller. An earlier three-year trial by the same group (Knapen 2007) used the pharmacological MK-4 dose (45 mg/day) in 325 postmenopausal women: it did not change DXA bone density, but bone mineral content and femoral-neck width increased relative to placebo, and hip bone strength was maintained while it declined in the placebo group.

The authors concluded that MK-7 supplements may help postmenopausal women prevent bone loss, and that whether the results apply to other populations needs further investigation (Knapen 2013). One positive three-year trial in healthy (not osteoporotic) women, measuring bone density rather than clinical fractures, does not by itself show that K2 prevents fractures across the population — and the trials in the next section came out differently.

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The Negative Trials: ECKO, Emaus and Rønn

A responsible account of K2 and bone has to include the trials that did not show benefit, because they are real and they matter.

So the trials disagree: the three-year Knapen MK-7 trial was positive for bone density, the one-year Emaus and three-year Rønn MK-7 trials were neutral, and the high-dose K1 ECKO trial was negative for bone density. None of the MK-7 trials on this page reported fewer fractures.

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What the Evidence Actually Supports

Putting the pieces together honestly:

  1. Mechanism. Vitamin K carboxylates osteocalcin, and the percentage of undercarboxylated osteocalcin is used as a biomarker of vitamin K status (Gundberg 2012); every trial on this page that measured it found ucOC fell with supplementation.
  2. Pharmacological MK-4 (45 mg) for osteoporosis — mostly Japanese, contested. An open-label trial reported fewer clinical fractures (Shiraki 2000); the 4,378-woman OF study was negative on its primary vertebral-fracture endpoint (Inoue 2009); several papers from one research group have been retracted, and the Yamaguchi study was retracted in 2025.
  3. Nutritional MK-7 for bone — unsettled. One positive 3-year density trial (Knapen 2013); three neutral trials (Emaus 2010; Rønn 2016, 2021); none reported fewer fractures.
  4. Meta-analyses. Restricted to low-bias trials, the clinical-fracture estimate was no longer statistically significant, and the authors judged the evidence insufficient to confirm a fracture benefit (Mott 2019).

In summary, the research supports vitamin K's role in osteocalcin carboxylation, while fracture prevention by nutritional-dose K2 has not been demonstrated; the fracture data come mainly from pharmacological-dose MK-4 trials in Japan, part of which has been retracted or flagged. The broader treatment landscape is covered on the Osteoporosis page.

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Working With Vitamin D, Calcium, and Magnesium

Vitamin K2 is studied alongside other nutrients involved in bone:

Trials of vitamin K have been run against a background of other nutrients; the ECKO participants, for example, were vitamin D replete at baseline (Cheung 2008). How much K2 adds depends on that background, and the trials above do not settle it.

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Doses Used in Trials, Forms, and Food Sources

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Cautions and the Warfarin Interaction

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Key Research Papers

  1. Gundberg CM, Lian JB, Booth SL (2012). Vitamin K-dependent carboxylation of osteocalcin: friend or foe? Advances in Nutrition — PubMed PMID: 22516722
  2. Binkley NC et al. (2002). A high phylloquinone intake is required to achieve maximal osteocalcin gamma-carboxylation. Am J Clin Nutr — PubMed PMID: 12399278
  3. Shiraki M, Shiraki Y, Aoki C, Miura M (2000). Vitamin K2 (menatetrenone) effectively prevents fractures and sustains lumbar bone mineral density in osteoporosis. J Bone Miner Res 15(3):515–521 — PubMed PMID: 10750566
  4. Iwamoto J, Takeda T, Sato Y (2006). Menatetrenone (vitamin K2) and bone quality in the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Nutrition Reviews 64(12):509–517 — PubMed PMID: 17274493 — Expression of concern (Nutr Rev 2020: PubMed PMID: 32412060)
  5. Cockayne S et al. (2006). Vitamin K and the prevention of fractures: systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs. Arch Intern Med — PubMed PMID: 16801507 — Expression of concern (JAMA Intern Med 2018, “Caution of Conclusions of a Meta-analysis Including Problematic Trials”: PubMed PMID: 29582046)
  6. Mott A, Bradley T, Wright K, Cockayne ES, Shearer MJ, Adamson J, Lanham-New SA, Torgerson DJ (2019). Effect of vitamin K on bone mineral density and fractures in adults: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Osteoporosis International 30(8):1543–1559. — PubMed PMID: 31076817 — correction 2020: PubMed PMID: 32965511
  7. Knapen MHJ et al. (2013). Three-year low-dose menaquinone-7 supplementation helps decrease bone loss in healthy postmenopausal women. Osteoporosis International — PubMed PMID: 23525894
  8. Knapen MHJ et al. (2007). Vitamin K2 supplementation improves hip bone geometry and bone strength indices in postmenopausal women. Osteoporosis International — PubMed PMID: 17287908
  9. Cheung AM et al. (2008). Vitamin K supplementation in postmenopausal women with osteopenia (ECKO trial). PLoS Medicine — PubMed PMID: 18922041
  10. Emaus N et al. (2010). Vitamin K2 supplementation does not influence bone loss in early menopausal women. Osteoporosis International — PubMed PMID: 19937427
  11. Booth SL et al. (2000). Dietary vitamin K intakes are associated with hip fracture but not with bone mineral density. Am J Clin Nutr — PubMed PMID: 10799384
  12. Ushiroyama T et al. (2002). Effect of continuous combined therapy with vitamin K2 and vitamin D3 on bone mineral density. Maturitas — PubMed PMID: 11886767
  13. Vermeer C (2012). Vitamin K: the effect on health beyond coagulation — an overview. Food & Nutrition Research — PubMed PMID: 22489224
  14. Schurgers LJ, Teunissen KJ, Hamulyák K, Knapen MH, Vik H, Vermeer C (2007). Vitamin K-containing dietary supplements: comparison of synthetic vitamin K1 and natto-derived menaquinone-7. Blood 109(8):3279–3283 — PubMed PMID: 17158229
  15. Szulc P, Chapuy MC, Meunier PJ, Delmas PD (1993). Serum undercarboxylated osteocalcin is a marker of the risk of hip fracture in elderly women. J Clin Invest 91(4):1769–1774 — PubMed PMID: 8473517
  16. Vergnaud P, Garnero P, Meunier PJ, Bréart G, Kamihagi K, Delmas PD (1997). Undercarboxylated osteocalcin measured with a specific immunoassay predicts hip fracture in elderly women: the EPIDOS Study. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 82(3):719–724 — PubMed PMID: 9062471
  17. Inoue T, Fujita T, Kishimoto H, Makino T, Nakamura T, Nakamura T, Sato T, Yamazaki K (2009). Randomized controlled study on the prevention of osteoporotic fractures (OF study): a phase IV clinical study of 15-mg menatetrenone capsules. J Bone Miner Metab 27(1):66–75. — PubMed PMID: 19082528
  18. Huang ZB, Wan SL, Lu YJ, Ning L, Liu C, Fan SW (2015). Does vitamin K2 play a role in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis for postmenopausal women: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Osteoporos Int 26(3):1175–1186. — PubMed PMID: 25516361
  19. Rønn SH, Harsløf T, Pedersen SB, Langdahl BL (2016). Vitamin K2 (menaquinone-7) prevents age-related deterioration of trabecular bone microarchitecture at the tibia in postmenopausal women. Eur J Endocrinol 175(6):541–549. — PubMed PMID: 27625301
  20. Rønn SH, Harsløf T, Oei L, Pedersen SB, Langdahl BL (2021). The effect of vitamin MK-7 on bone mineral density and microarchitecture in postmenopausal women with osteopenia, a 3-year randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Osteoporos Int 32(1):185–191. — PubMed PMID: 33030563
  21. Ishida Y, Kawai S (2004). Comparative efficacy of hormone replacement therapy, etidronate, calcitonin, alfacalcidol, and vitamin K in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis: the Yamaguchi Osteoporosis Prevention Study. Am J Med 117(8):549–555. — PubMed PMID: 15465502 — Retracted (retraction notice: PubMed PMID: 40222753)
  22. Avenell A, Grey A, Gamble GD, Bolland MJ (2020). Concerns about the integrity of the Yamaguchi Osteoporosis Prevention Study (YOPS) report, Am J Med. 2004;117:549-555. Am J Med 133(6):e311–e314. — PubMed PMID: 32532372
  23. Sato Y, Kanoko T, Satoh K, Iwamoto J (2005). Menatetrenone and vitamin D2 with calcium supplements prevent nonvertebral fracture in elderly women with Alzheimer's disease. Bone 36(1):61–68. — PubMed PMID: 15664003 — Retracted (retraction notice: PubMed PMID: 29150013)
  24. Sato Y, Honda Y, Umeno K, Hayashida N, Iwamoto J, Takeda T, Matsumoto H (2011). The prevention of hip fracture with menatetrenone and risedronate plus calcium supplementation in elderly patients with Alzheimer disease: a randomized controlled trial. Kurume Med J 57(4):117–124. — PubMed PMID: 21778673 — Retracted (retraction notice: PubMed PMID: 28408729)
  25. Iwamoto J, Takeda T, Sato Y (2004). Effects of vitamin K2 on osteoporosis. Curr Pharm Des 10(21):2557–2576. — PubMed PMID: 15320745 — Retracted (retraction notice: PubMed PMID: 34264184)

PubMed Topic Searches

  1. PubMed: K2 & bone mineral density
  2. PubMed: undercarboxylated osteocalcin & fracture
  3. PubMed: menatetrenone (MK-4) & osteoporosis
  4. PubMed: MK-7 bone RCTs
  5. PubMed: K + D + calcium for bone

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External Resources

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