Preservation of thrombomodulin antigen on vascular and extravascular surfaces.

The protein C anticoagulant system is mediated by thrombin and is highly accelerated by thrombomodulin. We studied the distribution of thrombomodulin antigen (TM Ag) in the rabbit using an affinity-purified antibody raised in a goat against rabbit thrombomodulin. The preservation of TM Ag was highly dependent on immediate fixation of the surface on which it is located. TM Ag was found on the endothelium of the entire vasculature, whereas it was absent from all connective tissue, smooth and striated muscle, secretory epithelia, cartilage, bone, neural tissue, and all parenchyma examined. A new finding was the presence of TM Ag on nonvascular surfaces of body cavities (the mesothelia of pleura, pericardium, and peritoneum, the synovial membrane, and the arachnoid enveloping the central nervous system). By use of a functional assay, TM activity was recovered in buffered saline/detergent solution which was either injected into the intraperitoneal cavity of rabbits in vivo or incubated with the surface of the arachnoid in vitro. These findings extend the importance of anticoagulant mechanisms to the systems of slowly circulating fluids, in which they might be required for maintenance of the flow, and to mesothelial cavities, in which they could be necessary for preventing adherence between the surfaces, in conditions associated with pathological exudation.