Abstract
IN 1964 Macfarlane1 proposed a reaction mechanism for the interaction of blood coagulation factors, known as the enzyme cascade. In this hypothesis the blood coagulation factors as they occur in plasma are considered to be zymogens (except factor I; namely, fibrinogen). Coagulation is initiated by the conversion of one of these zymogens into an enzyme as a result of contact with anything other than intact vascular endothelium. This enzyme then acts on another clotting factor to form another active enzyme. All clotting factors thus interact in a given order until prothrombin (factor II) is converted into thrombin. Thrombin then brings about the actual coagulation by converting fibrinogen into fibrin.
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HEMKER, H., KAHN, M. Reaction Sequence of Blood Coagulation. Nature 215, 1201–1202 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/2151201a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2151201a0
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