Re-formation of disulphide bonds in reduced antithrombin III.

Human antithrombin III (AT-III) contains three disulphide linkages (Cys-8-Cys-128, Cys-21-Cys-95 and Cys-247-Cys-430), and two of them (Cys-8-Cys-128 and Cys-21-Cys-95) are situated near the heparin-binding domain of the inhibitor. We demonstrate in this paper that: (i) partially reduced AT-III (with Cys-8-Cys-128 and Cys-21-Cys-95 quantitatively reduced) could be re-oxidized in air to regain 70-80% of its heparin cofactor activity and thrombin-inhibitory activity; (ii) completely reduced AT-III was re-oxidized under similar conditions and recovered 30-35% of it biological activities. Structural analysis of refolded AT-IIIs indicates that restorations of their disulphide contents and conformations (evaluated by chemical modification) are congruent with recoveries of their biological activities.