Modulation of the cell membrane expression of the kininogens regulates the rate of bradykinin delivery to cells.

The kininogens were first recognized as the parent molecules for bradykinin. Their relative physiologic importance in plasma hemostasis and fibrinolysis and tissue cysteine protease inhibition has not been clarifed. Recent studies on the structure and function of the plasma kininogens, their interaction with cells of the intravascular compartment, and clinical investigations on contact system activation have refocused the physiologic importance of these proteins to kinin delivery for the maintance of vasodilatory tone. Kininogen expression on platelets slows the rate of kinin liberation, and kinins upregulate kininogen expression on endothelial cells. Regulation of kinin delivery by influencing kininogen expression may provide for new agents to manipulate blood pressure.