Proteins involved in the Vroman effect during exposure of human blood plasma to glass and polyethylene

Abstract

The amounts of fibrinogen adsorbed to glass from various human blood plasmas have been measured as a function of time. The plasmas were 11 single donor plasmas, pooled plasma, a single donor high molecular weight kininogen (HMWK)-deficient plasma and HMWK-deficient plasma, which had been reconstituted with HMWK. For adsorption times between 1 min and 1 h more fibrinogen adsorbed from HMWK-deficient plasma compared with the amounts of fibrinogen which adsorbed from the other plasmas. This result supports the conclusion of several authors that HMWK is involved in the displacement of fibrinogen, initially adsorbed from normal human plasma to glass. Glass surfaces, pre-exposed to solutions of plasma and subsequently exposed to 1:1 diluted plasma, gives rise to a relatively high adsorption of HMWK which is independent of the plasma concentration of the precoating solution. The results indicate that HMWK from 1:1 diluted plasma is involved in the displacement of proteins from glass surfaces which had been pre-exposed to solutions with a low plasma concentration. Experiments with polyethylene as a substrate reveal that high density lipoprotein (HDL) from 1:1 diluted plasma is involved in the displacement of proteins from polyethylene surfaces which had been pre-exposed to solutions with a low plasma concentration. Moreover, evidence is presented that substantial amounts of albumin and fibrinogen, adsorbed from 1:1000 diluted plasma to glass and polyethylene, are displaced from the surfaces of these materials by proteins from 1:1 diluted plasma different from HMWK and HDL.