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Heparin is procoagulant in the absence of antithrombin

2008; Thieme Medical Publishers (Germany); Volume: 100; Issue: 07 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1160/th08-05-0275

2567-689X

James H. Morrissey, Stephanie A. Smith,

Autoimmune Bullous Skin Diseases

Antithrombin is a serine protease inhibitor that inactivates thrombin, factor Xa (FXa) and other coagulation proteases.The inhibitory activity of AT is enhanced many fold by heparin or endothelial cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) (1) and a variety of non-human origin proteoglycans exhibit anticoagulant activity (2,3).Approximately 30% of heparin molecules in pharmaceutical preparations of unfractionated heparin (UFH) contain a specific sulfated pentasaccharide sequence that confers high affinity binding to AT (1), but less than 5% of endothelial HSPG molecules bind AT (5,6).Heparins and HSPGs are highly anionic and they bind to many other proteins, including growth factors, extracellular matrix proteins, selectins, lipoproteins, cytokines and chemokines.As a result, HPSGs have a wide variety of nonanticoagulant effects, including influences on platelet function, cell adhesion, inflammation, apotosis, angiogenesis, and development (1,4).