A model of fibrin formation based on crystal structures of fibrinogen and fibrin fragments complexed with synthetic peptides

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2000 Dec 19;97(26):14156-61. doi: 10.1073/pnas.97.26.14156.

Abstract

A blood clot is a meshwork of fibrin fibers built up by the systematic assembly of fibrinogen molecules proteolyzed by thrombin. Here, we describe a model of how the assembly process occurs. Five kinds of interaction are explicitly defined, including two different knob-hole interactions, an end-to-end association between gamma-chains, a lateral association between gamma-chains, and a hypothetical lateral interaction between beta-chains. The last two of these interactions are responsible for protofibril association and are predicated on intermolecular packing arrangements observed in crystal structures of fibrin double-D fragments cocrystallized with synthetic peptides corresponding to the knobs exposed by the release of the fibrinopeptides A and B.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation*
  • Crystallization
  • Fibrin / chemistry*
  • Fibrinogen / chemistry*
  • Humans
  • Models, Molecular*
  • Peptide Fragments / chemistry*

Substances

  • Peptide Fragments
  • Fibrin
  • Fibrinogen