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HEMOSTASIS, THROMBOSIS, AND VASCULAR BIOLOGY
From the Division of Cell and Molecular Medicine,
Center for Molecular Medicine, Jichi Medical School,
Minamikawachi-machi; the Third Department of Internal Medicine, Dokkyo
University School of Medicine, Mibu-machi, Tochigi; and the First
Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo Medical and
Dental University, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Acquired coagulation factor inhibitors include pathologic
immunoglobulins that specifically bind to coagulation factors and either neutralize their procoagulant activity, accelerate their clearance from the circulation, or have proteolytic activity to degrade
them into inactive polypeptides. Here, an autoantibody against
prothrombin is described in a patient with serious hemorrhagic diatheses. The autoantibody exerts its influence by a previously unknown mechanism in which it inhibits coagulation through aberrant activation of the proenzyme in a catalytic manner. The antibody-bound prothrombin formed a stable stoichiometric complex with antithrombin III, consisting of intact prothrombin and an antithrombin III molecule
cleaved at the 393Arg-394Ser bond. The antibody
dissociated from prothrombin after the complex formation with
antithrombin III. Although the bound antibody elicited protease
activity from prothrombin, the complex was not able to convert
fibrinogen to fibrin or to activate protein C. Thus, this is the first
description of an autoantibody that induces protease-like activity from
a human proenzyme, permitting subsequent neutralization by its
physiological inhibitor. This article has been cited by other articles:
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| Copyright © 2001 by American Society of Hematology Online ISSN: 1528-0020 | |||||||||