Antithrombin in vertebrate species: conservation of the heparin-dependent anticoagulant mechanism

Heparin is thought to regulate the rate of mammalian blood clotting by enhancing the activity of antithrombin, an inhibitor of coagulation enzymes. The present study establishes that this same inhibitor is present in the blood plasma of each of the terrestrial vertebrate groups including mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. In each case, an inhibitor with remarkably similar properties to human antithrombin was isolated by affinity chromatography on immobilized porcine heparin. The purified vertebrate inhibitors all show the following physical and functional homologies to human antithrombin: (i) heparin-enhanced inhibition of both bovine thrombin and human Factor Xa, (ii) molecular masses of approximately 60,000, and (iii) heparin-induced increases in ultraviolet fluorescence. Also, the heparin-binding interaction of vertebrate antithrombins is highly selective with each demonstrating the same rigid specificity for heparin species fractionated on the basis of their affinity for human antithrombin. This common ability of vertebrate antithrombins to discriminate among heparins is accomplished by a nearly unvarying equilibrium binding constant for the high-affinity heparin species. Thus, the present results suggest that the anticoagulant relationship of heparin and antithrombin was established at an early point in the evolution of the coagulation system and has been highly conserved since that time.