High Molecular Weight Kininogen Is Cleaved by FXIa at Three Sites: Arg409-Arg410, Lys502-Thr503 and Lys325-Lys326

Abstract

SummaryWe investigated the cleavage of high molecular weight kininogen (HK) by activated coagulation factor XI (FXIa) in vitro. Incubation of HK with FXIa resulted in the generation of cleavage products which were subjected to SDS-Page and analyzed by silverstaining, ligandblotting and immunoblotting, respectively. Upon incubation with FXIa, bands were generated at 111, 100, 88 kDa on nonreduced and at 76, 62 and 51 kDa on reduced gels. Amino acid sequence analysis of the reaction mixtures revealed three cleavage sites at Arg409-Arg410, at Lys502-Thr503 and at Lys325-Lys326. Analysis of HK-samples incubated with FXIa for 3 min, 10 min and 120 min indicated HK to be cleaved first at Arg409-Arg410, followed by cleavage at Lys502-Thr503 and then at Lys325-Lys326.In conclusion, HK is cleaved by FXIa at three sites. Cleavage of HK by FXIa results in the loss of the surface binding site of HK, which may constitute a mechanism of inactivation of HK and of control of contact system activation.