Inhibitory effects of TFPI variants on thrombin and factor Xa generation in fibrinogen-deficient human plasma

Using a fast kinetic centrifugal analyzer, the inhibitory effects of glycosylated and unglycosylated full-length and truncated forms of TFPI on protease generation were studied in fibrinogen-deficient human plasma after extrinsic (EA) or intrinsic (IA) activation of coagulation. When the assay system was supplemented with increasing amounts of the TFPI variants the generation of both thrombin and factor Xa was inhibited in a concentration-dependent manner. Clear differences in the effectiveness of the TFPI variants were found. After EA, the unglycosylated full-length TFPI was most effective followed by the glycosylated full-length form. The C-terminal truncated TFPI showed the lowest inhibitory activity in this system. However, its efficiency increased several fold when coagulation was activated via the intrinsic pathway. Comparing the IC50 values after IA, the truncated TFPI was more effective than the unglycosylated full-length form and nearly as effective as the glycosylated full-length TFPI. After both EA and IA the thrombin generation inhibition by TFPI variants was more pronounced than the inhibition of factor Xa generation. The results show that chemical modifications of the TFPI structure can result in changes of TFPI's inhibitory properties to activated clotting factors leading to differences in protease generation inhibition.