Inhibition of activated protein C by aprotinin and the use of the insolubilized inhibitor for its purification.

The study of the interaction between activated protein C (APC) and non-plasmatic inhibitors allowed us to demonstrate that aprotinin is a potent competitive inhibitor of APC with a Ki of 1.35 mumol/L. It was possible to adsorb immunopurified protein C (PC) activated by venom activator to insolubilized aprotinin and to recover the active enzyme after elution by HCl 0.1 N or by a chaotropic ion, for example KSCN 3 mol/L. The interaction involved the active-site of the enzyme since PC and DIP-APC did not bind to the matrix. Thus, APC could be purified, after activation, in a one-stage procedure out of a mixture of protein such as a prothrombin complex concentrate.