Summary
Upon the plasmin digestion of human fibrinogen, an early cleavage product, which has
been designated as fragment A, was isolated, and to study the action of plasmin in
the circulation, radioimmunoassay for fragment A was carried out. This assay used
rabbit immune serum obtained by injection of fragment A mixed with complete Freund’s
adjuvant, and fragment A was labeled with 125I using the Chloramin-T method.
In 20 normal healthy donors its serum level was 3.57 ± 1.62 μg/ml (mean ± SD), and
it was increased significantly in certain diseases, such as acute leukemias, cardiovascular
disorders, malignancies, renal failure, systemic lupus erythematosus and sepsis.