Abstract
ABSTRACT: In many countries vitamin K prophylaxis at birth is recommended to prevent bleeding in infants due to vitamin K deficiency. Because the incidence of clinical vitamin K deficiency is very low, such a vitamin K administration should be completely safe. However, an increase in sister chromatid exchanges in lymphocytes of fetal sheep 24 h after injection of vitamin K1 has been reported. Therefore, a study concerning genotoxicity of vitamin K1 in man was conducted. Sister chromatid exchanges and chromosome aberrations were analyzed in peripheral blood lymphocytes of six newborns 24 h after intramuscular administration of 1 mg vitamin K1 and in six control neonates. The mean number of sister chromatid exchanges per metaphase in the vitamin K group was 8.88 ± 1.22 as compared with 9.05 ± 1.14 in the control group (NS). The mean number of chromosome aberrations per 100 mitoses was 3.00 ± 2.61 in the vitamin K group and 2.50 ± 1.87 in the control group (NS). Vitamin K1 plasma concentrations ranged from 115 to 1150 ng/mL (255 to 2555 X 10-9 M) in the supplemented group, a 5000-fold rise as compared with the control group (p < 0.01). We did not find any evidence for genetic toxicity due to the administration of 1 mg vitamin K1 intramuscularly to the newborn child.
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Cornelissen, M., Smeets, D., Merkx, G. et al. Analysis of Chromosome Aberrations and Sister Chromatid Exchanges in Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes of Newborns after Vitamin K Prophylaxis at Birth. Pediatr Res 30, 550–552 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199112000-00011
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199112000-00011