Summary
Plasmin was immobilized on collageno-elastic tubes (CET) using carbodiimide as the
cross-linking agent. The effects of plasmin-CET grafts and corresponding soluble plasmin
on fibrinogen, thrombin-mediated fibrinogen activation, and platelet activity, were
investigated
There was a significant increase in fibrinogen deposition on plasmin-CETs over non-plasmin
(i.e. control) CETs. Furthermore, exposure of fibrinogen to plasmin CETs enhances
its deposition to control grafts situated downstream. Plasmin-bound CETs retained
higher platelet deposition when preliminarily coated with fibrinogen. Finally, plasmin
exerted a positive effect on thrombin-mediated fibrinogen activation at low plasmin
concentrations. A mechanistic hypothesis aimed at interpreting this
finding is proposed.