Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Location Of The Carboxy-Terminal Region Of Γ Chains In Fibrinogen And Fibrin D Domains, Michael W. Mosesson, Kevin R. Siebenlist, David A. Meh, Joseph S. Wall, James F. Hainfeld

Biomedical Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Elongated fibrinogen molecules are comprised of two outer “D” domains, each connected through a “coiled-coil” region to the central “E” domain. Fibrin forms following thrombin cleavage in the E domain and then undergoes intermolecular end-to-middle D:E domain associations that result in double-stranded fibrils. Factor XIIIa mediates crosslinking of the C-terminal regions of γ chains in each D domain (the γXL site) by incorporating intermolecular ɛ-(γ-glutamyl)lysine bonds between amine donor γ406 lysine of one γ chain and a glutamine acceptor at γ398 or γ399 of another. Several lines of evidence show that crosslinked γ chains extend “transversely” between the strands of …