α2-macroglobulin binds and inhibits activated protein C

Abstract

In previous studies using a nonhuman primate model of Protein C (PC) activation in vivo, immunoblotting showed substantial amounts of activated PC (APC) in a high molecular weight complex with what was presumed to be a previously unrecognized APC binding protein. This APC complex can also be formed in citrated plasma in vitro. It is of low electrophoretic mobility, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SOS) stable, with an apparent Mr of 320 Kd. Its purification from human plasma was accomplished using barium citrate adsorption, sequential polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitations, diethylaminoethyl sepharose chromatography, AcA-34 gel filtration, and zinc-chelate affinity chromatography. This was monitored by subjecting the fractions to nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), transfer to polyvinylidene-difluoride membranes, and probing with 125I-labeled human APC. The purified APC-binding protein was homogeneous by SDS-PAGE with an Mr of 275 Kd. Its identity as α2-macroglobulin (α2M) was demonstrated immunochemically. Complex formation between α2M and APC was found to be almost completely inhibited by EDTA, but to a lesser extent by citrate. Complex formation could also be prevented by active site inhibition with D-Phenylalanyl-L-Prolyl-L-Arginine-Chloromethyl Ketone (PPACK) or pretreatment of α2M with methylamine. Incubation of APC (33 nmol/L) with α2M (1 μmol/L) resulted in time-dependent inhibition of APC anticoagulant activity when measured using an activated partial thromboplastin time based APC assay. These data show that α2M binds and inhibits APC in vitro and the interaction is both metal-ion and active-site dependent, requiring functionally intact α2M. As the complexes formed in vitro comigrate electrophoretically with those observed in vivo after PC activation, it is suggested that α2M is a physiologically relevant inhibitor involved in the processing of APC in vivo. © 1991 by The American Society of Hematology.