Human glu-plasminogen variant II (carbohydrate)

MW(Da) : 88 000 Extinction coef. : 17 Isoelectric point : 6.2 Structure : single chain with 24 intrachain disulfide bonds, 5 kringle regions.

A proenzyme or zymogen is a protein precursor of an enzyme which can give, after activation, an active enzyme. Plasminogen (88 kDa) is the zymogen of plasmin, a key enzyme in the fibrinolysis system. Plasminogen is synthesized mainly by the liver but also the eosinophils, the kidney and the cornea. It exists in 2 molecular forms: glu-plasminogen (native form) and lys-plasminogen (more active form). The main pathways for activating plasminogen to plasmin involve t-PA and u-PA. The 2 carbohydrate variants of glu-plasminogen (CHOI and CHOII) are isolated by a gradient elution on sepharose-lysine using a lysine analogue (aminocaproic acid).