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Thrombin Stimulation of Platelets Induces Plasminogen Activation Mediated by Endogenous Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator
Catherine Lenich,
Jian-Ning Liu, and
Victor Gurewich
From the Department of Medicine, Vascular Research Laboratory, Institute for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
Gene knockout mice studies indicate that urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA) is importantly involved in fibrinolysis, but its physiologic mechanism of action remains poorly understood. We postulated that platelets may be involved in this mechanism, as they carry a novel receptor for u-PA and a portion of the single-chain u-PA (scu-PA) intrinsic to blood is tightly associated with platelets. Therefore, plasminogen activation by platelet-associated u-PA was studied. When washed platelets were incubated with plasminogen, no plasmin was generated as detected by plasmin synthetic substrate (S2403) hydrolysis; however, after the addition of thrombin, but not other agonists, platelet-dependent plasminogen activation occurred. Plasminogen activation was surface-related, being inhibited by blocking platelet fibrinogen receptors or by preventing plasminogen binding to the thrombin-activated platelet surface. U-PA was identified as the only plasminogen activator responsible and enrichment of platelets with exogenous scu-PA significantly augmented plasminogen activation. These findings appeared paradoxical because thrombin inactivates scu-PA. Indeed, zymograms showed inactivation of scu-PA during the first hour of incubation with even the lowest dose of thrombin used (1 u/mL). However, this was followed by a thrombin dose-dependent (1 to 10 u/mL) partial return of u-PA activity. Reactivation of u-PA was not due to the direct action of thrombin, but required platelets and was found to be related to a platelet lysosomal thiol protease, consistent with cathepsin C. In conclusion, a new pathway of plasminogen activation by platelet-associated endogenous or exogenous scu-PA was demonstrated, which is specifically triggered by thrombin activation of platelets. These findings may help explain u-PA-mediated physiological fibrinolysis and have implications for therapeutic thrombolysis with scu-PA.
Blood, Vol. 90 No. 9 (November 1), 1997:
pp. 3579-3586
© 1997 by The American Society of Hematology.
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