Summary
The inner structure of fibrin fibres grown from fibrinogen solution activated by human
α-thrombin was investigated by means of an Energy Dispersive X-ray Diffraction technique.
The experiments show evidence for the well-characterized 22.5 nm repeat distance,
which indicates the high order of protofibril arrangement in the longitudinal direction
of fibres. The diffraction pattern also manifested a further pronounced peak at 18.1
nm (and its second order reflection at 18.1/√2) demonstrating the existence in fibrin
of a high degree of lateral order. The reported results directly confirm, on unperturbed
wet samples, that protofibrils closely associate giving rise to a crystalline axial
and equatorial packing according to the conclusions of the multibundle model.
Theme paper: Part of this work was originally presented at the joint meetings of the
16th International Congress of the International Society of Fibrinolysis and Proteolysis
(ISFP) and the 17th International Fibrinogen Workshop of the International Fibrinogen
Research Society (IFRS) held in Munich, Germany, September, 2002.
Keywords
Coarse fibrin gel - protofibril - fibrin fibre - EDXD
