Distribution of tissue-type plasminogen activator (activity and antigen) in rat tissues.

Tissue-type plasminogen activator (PA) activity and antigen was measured in nine different tissues from healthy rats (brain, lung, heart, liver, spleen, kidney, adrenal, aorta and skeletal muscle). After extraction in a KSCN buffer (for kidney) or in an acid acetate buffer (for all other tissues), total PA activity was determined by an improved spectrophotometric procedure, and tissue-type PA (tPA) activity was determined by quenching with anti-rat tPA Ig; tPA antigen was determined by an ELISA procedure. tPA was the major PA (greater than 90%) in all tissues, except kidney and liver (65%) and spleen (40%). Lung yielded the highest tPA activity (1400 U/g), followed by kidney, brain, heart and adrenal (150-300 U/g), and then by liver, aorta, spleen and muscle (15-30 U/g). In agreement with fibrin autographic studies, which demonstrated the presence of tPA-PAI complexes in the tissue extracts, the tPA antigen/activity ratio was generally greater than one. Free PA inhibitor activity could not be demonstrated in any tissue.