Contributions of contact activation pathways of coagulation factor XII in plasma

Activation of human blood plasma coagulation by contact with hydrophilic or hydrophobic surfaces (procoagulants) is dominated by kallikrein (Kal)-mediated activation of the blood zymogen FXII (Hageman Factor). Mathematical modeling of prekallikrein (PK)-deficient platelet-poor plasma (d(PK)PPP) and PK-reconstituted d(PK)PPP (Rd(PK)PPP) coagulation shows that autoactivation of FXII (FXII ->(surface) FXIIa) produces no more than about 25% of the total FXIIa produced by the intrinsic pathway. Autoactivation mid reciprocal-activation increase, in the same proportion with procoagulant surface energy (water-wettability), whereas total amount of FXIIa produced per-unit-area procoagulant remains roughly constant for any particular procoagulant. These results suggest that procoagulant surfaces initiate the intrinsic cascade by producing a bolus of FXIIa in production to surface energy or surface area but play no additional role in subsequent molecular events in the cascade. Results further suggest that reciprocal-activation occurs in proportion to the amount of FXIIa produced by the initiating autoactivation step. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res 90A: 27-34, 2009