| Abstract: | A hereditary dysfibrinogenemia associated with defective aggregation of fibrin monomers was found in a 39-yr-old female and in the members of her immediate family, who had all been asymptomatic. The abnormality was probably due to an impaired polymerization site exposed in the DD domain of two adjacent fibrin molecules, because plasmic fragment DD derived from the propositus' cross-linked fibrin bound far less tightly to insolubilized normal fragment E than that from the normal one. Its complementary polymerization site in the E domain of fibrin, which was exposed by thrombin cleavage, and the polymerization site in the D domain of fibrinogen, which was available without activation by thrombin, were both found to be normal. More anodal migration of the abnormal fragment DD than the normal one, as shown by immunoelectrophoresis, seemed to support our concept that the mutation most likely resides in the D domain of the abnormal fibrinogen molecule at or near a region closely related to the polymerization site that is exposed when two fibrin molecules are linearly aligned. The work of others on the polymerization of normal fibrin with different techniques yielded results consistent with our conclusions. We tentatively designate this type of abnormal fibrinogen "fibrinogen Tokyo II," but its possible identity with other abnormalities of fibrinogen reported heretofore is not excluded. |
