Foods rich in potassium like banana and avocado may protect against pathogenic vascular calcification.
Reduced dietary potassium promotes elevated aortic stiffness in a mouse model, as compared with normal-potassium-fed mice.
Arterial stiffness in humans is predictive of heart disease and death from heart disease, increased dietary potassium levels lessened vascular calcification and aortic stiffness. The different levels of dietary potassium were monitored by different blood levels of potassium in the three groups of mice.
When researchers looked at arterial cross-sections in cultures that were exposed to three different concentrations of potassium, based on normal physiological levels of potassium in the blood, they found a direct effect for the potassium on arterial calcification within arterial rings.
Arterial rings in low-potassium had markedly enhanced calcification, while high-potassium inhibited aortic calcification. In cell culture, low potassium levels in the culture media markedly enhanced calcification of vascular smooth muscle cells.
They discovered that the low-potassium conditions promoted the expression of several gene markers that are hallmarks of bone cells, but decreased the expression of vascular smooth muscle cell markers, suggesting the transformation of the vascular smooth muscle cells into bone-like cells under low-potassium conditions. They found that low-potassium increased intracellular calcium in the vascular smooth muscle cells, through a potassium transport channel called the inward rectifier potassium channel.
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