Plasminogen activators in alcoholic cirrhosis: demonstration of increased tissue type and urokinase type activator.

Plasma samples from patients with alcoholic cirrhosis were analysed for plasminogen activators and for inhibitors of the fibrinolytic system. Plasminogen activator activity was considerably increased in patients' plasma compared with normal. Immunochemical characterisation of these plasminogen activators showed that they included both tissue type and urokinase type plasminogen activator. The major inhibitor of plasmin, alpha 2-antiplasmin, was decreased in the patients, but no evidence for the generation of plasmin was found.