The endothelial cells (ECs) are antithrombotic in the physiological states and maintains the integrity of blood circulation. However, ECs turn to be thrombotic upon being stimulated by various physiological mediators. These functions are mainly achieved by changing specific protein synthesis in ECs. Type 1 plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1) is a serine protease inhibitor synthesized by ECs and thought to play a crucial role in the regulation of fibrinolysis. Basic research as well as clinical studies support this hypothesis. PAI-1 is a physiological inhibitor of both tissue-type plasminogen activator and urokinase-type plasminogen activator, key enzymes in the initiation of fibrinolysis. Thus PAI-1 regulates not only blood clot lysis but also a wide variety of biological reactions occurring in extracellular matrices such as tumor metastasis, neovascularization, inflammation, and cell migration. PAI-1 is a glycoprotein, of which molecular weight is approximately 50,000. Molecular biological analyses indicate that PAI-1 is synthesized as a single polypeptide composed of 402 amino acids containing a signal peptide. After post-translational modification, PAI-1 is secreted from ECs as a polypeptide composed of 379 amino acids and three N-linked carbohydrates. PAI-1 lacks Cys residues, indicating that PAI-1 may not be rigid and thus thermolabile. In fact, PAI-1 is unstable even at 37 degrees C decaying into an inactive form with a biological half life of 2-3 hours. PAI-1 binds to a cell adhesion molecule, vitronectin. The association of PAI-1 with vitronectin appears to stabilize PAI-1. PAI-1 in complex with vitronectin is still accessible to plasminogen activators.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)