Sandbox Reserved 596: Difference between revisions

The function of PZ was studied in 1991 by Hogg and Stenflo, who initially hypothesized PZ to amplify the coagulation cascade but found that bovine PZ has a higher affinity for thrombin than human PZ due to a 36 amino acid addition to the bovine PZ's C-terminus. Furthermore, they found that PZ virtually had no involvement in binding thrombin to phospholipids. It was not until 1998 that Han et al. described PZ present in the body as a complex with protein Z-dependent protease inhibitor (ZPI). The ZPI and PZ complex acts as an inhibitor of factor Xa (FXa), an important enzyme in prothrombin activation, attached to platelets and other phopholipid surfaces (forming a calcium-dependent teritary complex). It has been shown that PZ and ZPI travel the body in plasma already bonded together as a complex and later binds to activated FXa bound to the phospholipid membrane. PZ has a high affinity for ZPI and speeds up its interaction FXa by 1000x with calcium and phospholipids present. While ZPI requires the presence of PZ, calcium, and phospholipids to inhibit FXa, ZPI does not need other components to inhibit another coagulation factor, factor XI.