Effect of single‐chain and two‐chain high molecular weight kininogen on adsorption of fibrinogen from binary mixtures to glass and sulfonated polyurethane surfaces

The adsorption of fibrinogen from a single protein solution and from binary mixtures of fibrinogen and high-molecular-weight kininogen (HK) to glass and four sulfonated polyurethane surfaces is reported. The effect of the single-chain (SCHK) and two-chain (TCHK) forms of HK on fibrinogen adsorption was investigated. Using radiolabeling methods, fibrinogen adsorption from a series of mixtures having the same weight ratio of fibrinogen to HK as in plasma (50:1), but varying in total concentration, was measured. Fibrinogen adsorption from the mixtures was reduced on all surfaces compared to the single-protein solution, confirming the highly surface-active nature of this protein. However, except for glass, there was no significant difference between the SCHK and TCHK forms. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting analysis of the proteins eluted from the surfaces after contact with the fibrinogen-SCHK solutions indicated that although intact SCHK was essentially conserved, some transformation of SCHK to TCHK on the surface occurred during the course of the experiment. It is hypothesized that in purified form, in which HK is not complexed to prekallikrein or factor XI, the surface-binding domain is more available than in the complexed forms which are present in plasma. If so, then the removal of bradykinin by kallikrein, as occurs in generating TCHK, may not be required for the expression of surface-binding domain activity.