| Abstract: | High molecular weight (HMW) kininogen was purified from fresh human plasma by two successive column chromatographies on DEAE-Sephadex A-50 and Zn-chelate Sepharose 4B. The purified HMW kininogen appeared to be a single band on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide disc gel electrophoresis in both the presence and absence of beta-mercaptoethanol. However, it gave two bands on nonreduced SDS-polyacrylamide slab gel electrophoresis, a major band of dimeric form (Mr 200 000, ca. 95%) and a minor band of monomeric form (Mr 105 000, ca. 5%). Under reduced conditions, the dimeric form was converted stoichiometrically to a monomeric form (Mr 110 000), and the monomeric form observed under nonreduced conditions (Mr 105 000) was converted to a heavy chain (Mr 60 000) and a light chain (Mr 50 000). The formation of a dimer of HMW kininogen was also confirmed by an immunoblotting experiment. This unique property of intact HMW kininogen to form a dimer was further utilized in studies on the kininogens and their derivatives as thiol proteinase inhibitors. The purified HMW kininogen strongly inhibited the caseinolytic activities of calpain I, calpain II, and papain but not those of trypsin, chymotrypsin, and thermolysin, indicating that it was a group-specific inhibitor for thiol proteinases. When HMW kininogen was reduced with 0.14 or 1.4 M beta-mercaptoethanol, its inhibitory activity was partially or mostly inactivated, but on subsequent air oxidation its activity was almost completely recovered. In addition, kinin-free and fragment 1,2 free HMW kininogen showed higher inhibitory activity than the intact HMW kininogen.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) |
