Thrombin-Antithrombin III and Plasm in-Antiplasmin Complexes as Indicators of in Vivo Activation of the Coagulation and/or Fibrinolytic Systems

Both the thrombin-antithrombin III and plasmin-antiplasmin complexes contain neoantigenic structures, not present in the parent molecules, to which non cross-reacting precipitating antibodies can be produced (Thromb.Res. 5, 577, 1974). This phenomenon has been used to develop immunochemical methods for the quantitation of these complexes in human blood (Thromb. Res 7, 235, 1975). Patients with in vivo activation of the coagulation and/or fibrinolytic systems consistently showed increased levels of enzyme-inhibitor complexes (Eur.J.Clin.Invest, in press, 1977). The circulatory half-life of these complexes was estimated to be several hours (0.5 to 0.75 days).

On several occasions, increased plasmin-antiplasmin titers were observed in the presence of a normal screening hemostasis analysis, suggesting that these assays may be more sensitive indicators of in vivo activation of the coagulation-fibrinolytic systems that assays for fibrinogen degradation products.

Studies to determine the clinical value of the measurement of these enzyme-inhibitor complexes as indicators of a prethrombotic state are in progress and will be reported.

 

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