Isolation, characterization, and location of a donor-acceptor unit from cross-linked fibrin.

The cross-linking systems of bovine and human fibrins were studied by the introduction of a radioactive substitute donor as an inhibitor of fibrin cross-linking, separation of the constituent polypeptide chains after sulfitolysis, and tryptic digestion of the labeled gamma-chains. The information gathered from this approach enabled us to isolate and characterize the complete donor-acceptor unit in tryptic digests of fibrin gamma-gamma cross-linked systems. In both bovine and human fibrin, this kind of cross-linking is accomplished by reciprocal bridging between overlapping carboxy-terminal segments of neighboring gamma-chains. The amino acid sequence of the carboxy-terminal heptadecapeptide of the bovine gamma-chain was determined and an alignment of the corresponding region of the human gamma-chain established.