Properties of fibrinogen-antigenic material on the rheumatoid synovial membrane and in the rheumatoid synovial fluid
Clemmensen, I.; Andersen, R.B.
Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine 92(5): 678-689
1978
ISSN/ISBN: 0022-2143 PMID: 712203 Document Number: 136060
Fibrin deposits on immunoglobulin against fibrinogen, by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and by gel filtration on Sepharose CL 6B. The material was found to be neither fibrinogen nor fibrin, but degradation products. One of the fragments was purified by preparative agarose electrophoresis, and the physicochemical properties of this fragment were found to be different from those obtained by plasmin digestion of fibrinogen or fibrin. Other proteases than plasmin are probably responsible for the degradation products. The material was easily degraded by plasmin to D- and E-antigenic end products, identical to those obtained by plasmin digest of fibrinogen. The solubility of the material was poor in synovial fluid compared to serum and buffer. The fibrinlike material on the synovial membrane may represent fibrinogen degradation products from the inflamed tissue. These products are likely released into the synovial fluid, and when their concentration here exceeds their solubility, they precipitate on the synovial membrane.