Summary
The antiheparin activity of normal serum has been studied by comparing the antiheparin
activities of sera obtained from normal whole blood, platelet-rich plasma and platelet-’free’
plasma with a purified platelet extract during differential isoelectric precipitation
and by gel filtration chromatography.
The mean values for the activity of PRP-serum and PFP-serum were 106% (S.D. 11) and
10% (S.D. 3) of untreated whole blood respectively. The activity of whole blood serum,
PRP serum and whole blood serum plus platelet extract precipitated under identical
physical conditions, i.e. pH 7.0, I =0.008, indicating that the activities of the
three samples are probably associated with PF4. PF4 precipitated from human platelet
extract at pH 4.0, but this is probably due to the difference in the two biochemical
environments investigated, i.e. serum and platelet extract.
The gel filtration experiments revealed striking similarities between the major antiheparin
activities of serum and platelet extract. At physiological pH and ionic strength both
activities were associated with high molecular weight material, but at physiological
pH and elevated ionic strength both activities behaved as much smaller entities of
molecular weight between 25,000 and 30,000 daltons and it seems very likely that both
activities are associated with the same molecule, i.e. PF4.