Binding of a monoclonal anti-human plasma prekallikrein antibody to the complexes of kallikrein with C1-inhibitor and alpha 2-macroglobulin analyzed by immunoblot and "sandwich" assays

Rhesus differential susceptibility to endotoxin is not associated with activation of plasma prekallikrein

This study is part of a project aimed at understanding individual responses to acute endotoxemia in a catheter-free rhesus (Macaca mulatta) model of inflammation. In the previous study [J. Endotoxin Res. 2 (1995) 411-420.], we showed that of 14 endotoxin 0111:B4 (ETX)-infused monkeys, only three died at < 13.5 h and one at 6 days postinfusion. Doses of ETX correlated neither with the magnitude of hypotension nor with rhesus outcome. Survival (and death at 6 days) or death at < 13.5 h was rather associated with controllable or uncontrollable rise of plasma levels of proinflammatory cytokines and reversible or irreversible shock. In the current study, we used plasmas of 5 survivors and of one of the monkeys that died at < 13.5 h (each infused with 3 X 10(6) EU ETX/kg), and of two saline control monkeys of the previous study. We analyzed changes in parameters of coagulation and contact systems. After ETX infusion, activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and prothrombin time (PT) values increased modestly in survivors but markedly in the nonsurvivor; responses of platelet counts and levels of fibrinogen, antithrombin, alpha2-macroglobulin (alpha2M), Cl-inhibitor (C1INH) and alpha1 -antitrypsin were similar in survivors and the nonsurvivor; the rate of plasma prekallikrein (PK) activation measured by hydrolysis of the kallikrein (KAL) substrate D-Pro-Phe-Arg-p-nitroanilide was not altered by ETX infusion; and the distribution of PK activation products, analyzed by MAb 13G11/immunoblotting in plasmas with or without artificial activation, was similar in survivors and the nonsurvivor. Responses in controls were relatively stable. Since we used defined experimental conditions, this primate model has the potential to be useful to study further correlation of inflammatory parameters with differential outcome.

Evidence for the presence of a kininogen-like species in a case of total deficiency of low and high molecular weight kininogens

Low and high molecular weight kininogens (LK and HK), containing 409 and 626 amino acids with masses of approximately 65 and 120 kDa after glycosylation, respectively, are coded by a single gene mapped to the human chromosome 3 by alternative splicing of the transcribed mRNA. The NH2-termini Glu1-Thr383 region, identical in LK and HK, contains bradykinin (BK) moieties Arg363-Arg371. LK, HK and their kinin products Lys-BK and BK are involved in several biologic processes. They are evolutionarily conserved and only 7 patients, all apparently normal, have been reported to lack them. In one of these patients (Williams' trait), a codon mutation (Arg178-->stop) has been blamed for the absence of LK and HK. However, using Western blots with 2 monoclonal anti-HK antibodies, one that recognizes the region common to LK and HK and the other that recognizes only HK, 1 detected approximately 110-kDa bands in the plasma of this LK/HK-deficient patient vs approximately 120-kDa bands in normal human and ape plasmas. With polyclonal anti-Lys-BK antibody, which strongly detects BK cleaved at its COOH-terminus in purified HK, 1 detected approximately 110-kDa bands in the normal and the deficient plasmas. Western blots with a monoclonal anti-prekallikrein (PK) antibody showed that surface activation of PK and distribution of PK activation products, both dependent on HK, were similar in these plasmas. These findings suggest that a mutant gene yielded a kininogen-like species possibly involving aberrant mRNA splicing-structurally different from normal HK, but apparently with the capacity to carry out seemingly vital HK functions.

Kallikrein and kallikrein-like proteinases: purification and determination by chromatographic and electrophoretic methods

Kallikreins and kallikrein-like enzymes make up a family of serine proteinases present in tissues and body fluids of mammals and in some snake venoms. This review deals with the procedures of purification, detection and determination of these enzymes by chromatographic and electrophoretic methods. The procedures are reported in tables, described and discussed with the aim of illustrating the state-of-the-art of research in the field.

Does resistance to endotoxin in primates correlate with levels of plasma prekallikrein?

Increased release of BK by HK hydrolysis has been correlated with the severity of hypotension in septic patients and animals challenged with gram-negative bacteria or endotoxin (ETX). Since HK hydrolysis in vivo is attributed mainly to the catalytic reaction of kallikrein (KAL) formed by activation of plasma PK, I tested whether the known resistance to ETX-rhesus and baboon > man and chimp-correlated with PK levels. Immunoblots and amidolytic assays showed that PK levels did not correlate. They were in rhesus and man > baboon and chimp. Also, PK did not correlate with levels of other modulators of free KAL levels in plasma-factor XII, HK and KAL inhibitors. Nonetheless, the distribution of PK and its activation products in plasmas activated with kaolin at 37 degrees C is analogous in the 4 primates, suggesting a similar mechanism for KAL inhibition in vitro. The results suggest that factors not yet known must contribute to the differential resistance of primates to ETX. Knowledge of these factors will help in prophylaxis and therapy of septicemia.

Computerized immunoblot analyses (CIBA) of the distribution of prekallikrein and its activation products in vivo and in vitro

The distribution of prekallikrein and the complexes of kallikrein with C1 inhibitor (C1INH), alpha 2-macroglobulin and approximately 58-kDa protein(s) (e.g. antithrombin III), differs in normal and C1INH-deficient human plasma, activated in vitro, due to different C1INH levels. Different distribution in the deficient plasma activated in vivo or in vitro, suggests different rates of complex clearance.