Activated platelets release their granule content in a concentrated fashion at sites of injury. We examined whether ectopically expressed factor VIII in developing megakaryocytes would be stored in alpha-granules and whether its release from circulating platelets would effectively ameliorate bleeding in a factor VIIInull mice model. Using the proximal glycoprotein 1b alpha promoter to drive exp...

Hemophilia A is caused by defects in the factor VIII gene. This results in life-threatening hemorrhages and severe arthropathies. Today, hemophiliacs are treated with human blood-derived factor VIII. In the future, it may be possible to use gene therapy to avoid long-term complications of conventional therapy and to improve the quality of life. However, initial gene therapy models using retrovi...

Viral safety is a prerequisite for manufacturing clinical antihemophilic factor VIII concentrates from human plasma. With particular regard to the hepatitis A virus (HAV), a terminal dry-heat treatment (100 degrees for 30 min) process, following lyophilization, was developed to improve the virus safety of a solvent/detergent-treated antihemophilic factor VIII concentrate. The loss of factor VII...

Factor IXa was shown to inactivate both factor VIII and factor VIIIa in a phospholipid-dependent reaction that could be blocked by an antifactor IX antibody. Factor IXa-catalyzed inactivation correlated with proteolytic cleavages within the A1 subunit of factor VIIIa and within the heavy chain (contiguous A1-A2-B domains) of factor VIII. Furthermore, a relatively slow conversion of factor VIII ...

Coagulation is triggered during the onset of myocardial infarction, resulting in vascular occlusion. However, a causal role for individual haemostatic factors in the development of thrombotic occlusion is not established. Three cases (all relatively young women) are reported of raised factor VIII associated with myocardial infarction. Two patients presented acutely with myocardial infarction at...

Recombinant blood clotting factor VIII is one of the most complex proteins for industrial manufacturing due to the low efficiency of its gene transcription, massive intracellular loss of its proprotein during post-translational processing, and the instability of the secreted protein. Improvement in hemophilia A therapy requires a steady increase in the production of factor VIII drugs despite ti...

A standard lyophilised triple cryoprecipitate preparation, stabilised by the addition of Synthamin 17, was heat treated at 60 degrees C for 48 hours. The total protein content, factor VIII concentration, and factor VIII recovery were not affected by the heat treatment procedure. Heat treatment did not influence the reconstitution characteristics of the freeze dried preparation and there were no...

Four years' experience with a method for preparing a high-purity, low-fibrinogen, heat-treated factor VIII concentrate is reported. The process, batch adsorption of a cryoprecipitate extract with controlled-pore glass granules, removes 77 percent of the cryoprecipitate fibrinogen, resulting in a final concentrate-specific activity of 0.74 IU factor VIII per mg of protein at a yield of 194 IU fa...

Three patients with spasmodic torticollis following VIII nerve lesions (VIII-ST) underwent quantitative assessment of their sternomastoid EMG during vestibular (otolith and semicircular canal) stimulation. The results were compared with a normal control group and with six patients with idiopathic spasmodic torticollis (ST). Backwards tilt of the VIII-ST patients resulted in a marked increase in...

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