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.
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