We used 55 Ala-scanned recombinant thrombin molecules to define residues important for inhibition by the serine protease inhibitor (serpin) heparin cofactor II (HCII) in the absence and presence of glycosaminoglycans. We verified the importance of numerous basic residues in anion-binding exosite-1 (exosite-1) and found 4 additional residues, Gln24, Lys65, His66, and Tyr71 (using the thrombin nu...

Heparin cofactor II (HC II) and thrombin were chemically modified with pyridoxal 5'-phosphate, and their effects on the inhibition of thrombin by HC II in the presence of heparin or dermatan sulfate were studied. The inhibition of thrombin by HC II was enhanced about 7000-fold in the presence of heparin or dermatan sulfate. However, this enhancement by heparin dwindled to 110- and 9.6-fold when...

A novel thrombin inhibitor based on single-stranded (ss) deoxynucleotides with the sequence GGTTGGTGTGGTTGG (thrombin aptamer) has been recently discovered. In this study, we tested its efficacy in inhibiting clot-bound thrombin activity and platelet thrombus formation in an ex vivo whole artery angioplasty model. The thrombin aptamer showed a specific dose-dependent inhibition of thrombin-indu...

Activation of factor XI (FXI) by thrombin in vivo plays a role in coagulation by providing an important positive feedback mechanism for additional thrombin generation. FXI is activated in vitro by thrombin, or FXIIa in the presence of dextran sulfate. In this report, we investigated the effect of 2-glycoprotein I ( 2GPI) on the activation of FXI. 2GPI bound FXI in vitro and inhibited its activa...

Thrombin is a pivotal enzyme formed in the coagulation cascade and an important and potent platelet activator. The two protease-activated thrombin receptors on human platelets are denoted PAR1 and PAR4. The physiological relevance of PAR4 is still unclear, as both aggregation and secretion can be accomplished by PAR1 activation alone. In the present study we have investigated the role of PARs i...

Clotting blood contains fibrin-bound thrombin, which is a major source of procoagulant activity leading to clot extension and further activation of coagulation. When bound to fibrin, thrombin is protected from inhibition by antithrombin (AT) + heparin but is neutralized when AT and heparin are covalently linked (ATH). Here, we report the surprising observation that, rather than yielding an iner...