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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Experimental and Imaging Techniques for Examining Fibrin Clot Structures in Normal and Diseased States
Published on: April 1, 2015
Soluble fibrin species in arterial thrombi
G Sandbaek1, S Bjørnsen, J H Sobel
1Research Institute for Internal Medicine, The National Hospital (Rikshospitalet), University of Oslo, Norway. gunnar.sandbaek@rh.uio.no
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to characterize soluble fibrin(ogen) species in human, arterial, in-vivo-formed thrombi, using the immunoblotting technique. Specimens were collected via intra-arterial catheters in six patients scheduled for catheter-directed thrombolysis. Unreduced and reduced samples of the supernatants from the arterial thrombi-derived specimens were electrophoresed on polyacrylamide gels and immunoblotted, using specific mono- and polyclonal anti-fibrin(ogen) antibodies. The reduced samples disclosed substantial amounts of high molecular weight material, consistent with alpha-chain polymers and gammagamma-dimers, as well as lower molecular weight material, such as alpha-, beta- and gamma-chains. No fibrinogen with intact fibrinopeptide A was detectable, and des-AABB fibrin represented a major fibrin derivative in the soluble part of the arterial thrombi. The alpha-chains were C-terminally degraded, most of them distal to position 259. In conclusion, we have demonstrated the presence of cross-linked fibrin derivatives in soluble, arterial thrombus-related material, without signs of fibrinogen-fibrin hybrids. The fibrin derivatives were C-terminally degraded, thus representing X-oligomeric material, most probably originating from plasmin degradation of insoluble thrombus fibrin. The present study supports the hypothesis of a dynamic equilibrium between clotting and lysis in thrombi.
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