Respective Roles of Antithrombin III and Alpha 2 Macroglobulin in Thrombin Inactivation

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Abstract
In order to investigate the mechanism of thrombin inactivation in the presence of both antithrombin III (AT III) and α 2-macroglobulin (α 2 M), thrombin and the inhibitors have been purified from human material and thrombin inactivation studied using purified reagents either alone or added to defibrinated plasma. Comparison of clotting and amidolytic activities of residual thrombin allowed to measure the amount of thrombin bound to α 2 M. In a purified reagent system as well as in plasma, part of exogenous thrombin is bound to α 2 M. The amount of bound thrombin is related to α 2 M concentration. Conversely, previous plasma α 2 M depletion by immunoabsorption increases the consumption of heparin-cofactor activity by exogenous thrombin. Thus AT III and α 2 M compete for thrombin inactivation. This finding could be of practical interest in clinical situations associating high plasma α 2 M levels and a decrease of AT III concentration.