Effects of tranexamic acid on the conversion of Glu-plasminogen I and II to its Lys-forms

Glu-plasminogen (Glu-plg) was incubated with plasmin. It took more than 2 hr incubation for the conversion of Glu-plg to a modified form (Lys-plg) to take place. Especially the conversion of Glu-plg II to Lys-plg II by plasmin took place very slowly. On the other hand, the conversion of Glu-plg I to Lys-plg I took place faster than that of Glu-plg II. In the presence of 1 mM tranexamic acid, the conversion of both Glu-plg I and II to their Lys-forms by plasmin was accelerated and completed in 30 min incubation. Fifty percent increase in the rate of the conversion of Glu-plg I to Lys-plg I was observed in the presence of 0.18 mM tranexamic acid. For the conversion of Glu-plg II to Lys-plg II, larger concentration of tranexamic acid was needed. Another observation was that tranexamic acid protected the degradation of plasminogen by plasmin, indicating the involvement of the lysine binding sites (LBS) of plasmin in the proteolytic attack against plg.