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A modular fibrinogen model that captures the stress-strain behavior of fibrin fibers.

ABSTRACT: We tested what to our knowledge is a new computational model for fibrin fiber mechanical behavior. The model is composed of three distinct elements: the folded fibrinogen core as seen in the crystal structure, the unstructured ?-C connector, and the partially folded ?-C domain. Previous studies have highlighted the importance of all three regions and how they may contribute to fibrin fiber stress-strain behavior. Yet no molecular model has been computationally tested that takes into account the individual contributions of all these regions. Constant velocity, steered molecular dynamics studies at 0.025 Å/ps were conducted on the folded fibrinogen core and the ?-C domain to determine their force-displacement behavior. A wormlike chain model with a persistence length of 0.8 nm (Kuhn length = 1.6 nm) was used to model the mechanical behavior of the unfolded ?-C connector. The three components were combined to calculate the total stress-strain response, which was then compared to experimental data. The results show that the three-component model successfully captures the experimentally determined stress-strain behavior of fibrin fibers. The model evinces the key contribution of the ?-C domains to fibrin fiber stress-strain behavior. However, conversion of the ?-helical coiled coils to ?-strands, and partial unfolding of the protein, may also contribute.

SUBMITTER: Averett RD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3471473 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A modular fibrinogen model that captures the stress-strain behavior of fibrin fibers.

Averett Rodney D RD Menn Bryant B Lee Eric H EH Helms Christine C CC Barker Thomas T Guthold Martin M

Biophysical journal 20121002 7

We tested what to our knowledge is a new computational model for fibrin fiber mechanical behavior. The model is composed of three distinct elements: the folded fibrinogen core as seen in the crystal structure, the unstructured α-C connector, and the partially folded α-C domain. Previous studies have highlighted the importance of all three regions and how they may contribute to fibrin fiber stress-strain behavior. Yet no molecular model has been computationally tested that takes into account the ...[more]

PMID: 23062346

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Project description:The fibrin polymers formed in solution during the earliest phase of the fibrinogen-fibrin conversion are shown to be stable soluble molecules at pH7.4 and 0.15m- or 0.3m-NaCl. The various sequential soluble fibrin polymers produced from the fibrinogen-thrombin reaction can be observed by gel chromatography and can be isolated for characterization. The mechanism of fibrin polymerization proposed from the present studies suggests that the initial event is the thrombin activation at only one of the Aalpha-chains in fibrinogen. The resulting highly reactive intermediate is the true fibrin monomer and it rapidly, and irreversibly, self-associates to form the stable fibrin dimer (s(20.w)=12S). Fibrin dimer possesses the N-terminal pattern alanine/glycine/tyrosine (1:1:2) per 340000 molecular weight, and possesses the chain structure [(alpha)Aalpha)(Bbeta)(2)(gamma)(2)](2). The fibrin dimer is a soluble inert molecule, but additional thrombin activation of its remaining intact Aalpha-chains leads to new associations into larger inert soluble fibrin polymers. In this manner progressively larger fibrin oligomers are constructed with thrombin continually in control of the process because of the necessity to repeatedly re-activate the various fibrin polymers in solution. The inert character of the soluble fibrin polymers can be explained by the reciprocal alignment of the associating molecules, which mutually consumes their active surfaces and leaves an intact Aalpha-chain at either end of each fibrin oligomer. The soluble fibrin polymers will proceed to further association only if thrombin activates these remaining Aalpha-chains, otherwise the fibrin molecules are stable indefinitely. The intermolecular associations within the soluble fibrin polymers are essentially irreversible under these nearly physiological conditions. However, the bonding is not covalent. This mechanism accounts for the clinical observations of stable fibrinogen-derived polymers in the plasma from patients undergoing thrombotic processes. Since it is shown that the intermediate fibrin polymers, themselves, are stable soluble molecules, it is no longer necessary, nor warranted, to invoke hypothetical ;fibrinogen-fibrin complexes' to explain observations of fibrin solubility.

Dataset Information

A modular fibrinogen model that captures the stress-strain behavior of fibrin fibers.

Publications

A modular fibrinogen model that captures the stress-strain behavior of fibrin fibers.

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