Analysis of human fibrinopeptides by high-performance liquid chromatography

During coagulation, fibrinogen is cleaved by thrombin, whereby fibrin and low molecular mass peptides, the so-called fibrinopeptides, are released. A novel method, employing high-performance liquid chromatography, has been developed for the separation and quantitation of these peptides. For the chromatography a reversed phase column was used. The fibrinopeptides were detected by their UV-absorption at 210 nm, peptides released from 0.1 mg of fibrinogen being easily detected. The procedure offers for the first time the possibility of determining all human fibrinopeptides and their degradation products in a single analysis. It is eminently suited for fibrinopeptide preparation and studies of fibrinopeptide release kinetics and genetically abnormal fibrinopeptides.