Human Platelets Contain Forms of Factor V in Disulfide-Linkage with Multimerin.

Factor V is an essential cofactor for blood coagulation that circulates in platelets and plasma. Unlike plasma factor V, platelet factor V is stored complexed with the polymeric α-granule protein multimerin. In analyses of human platelet factor V on nonreduced denaturing multimer gels, we identified that approximately 25% was variable in size and migrated larger than single chain factor V, the largest form in plasma. Upon reduction, the unusually large, variably-sized forms of platelet factor V liberated components that comigrated with other forms of platelet factor V, indicating that they contained factor V in interchain disulfide-linkages. With thrombin cleavage, factor Va heavy and light chain domains, but not B-domains, were liberated from the components linked by interchain disulfide bonds, indicating that the single cysteine in the B-domain at position 1085 was the site of disulfide linkage. Because unusually large factor V had a variable size and included forms larger than factor V dimers, the data suggested disulfide-linkage with another platelet protein, possibly multimerin. Immunoprecipitation experiments confirmed that all unusually large factor V in platelets was associated with multimerin and it remained associated in 0.5 M salt. Multimerin immunodepletion of the normal pooled platelet lysate removed 100 ± 0% of multimerin and 47.0 ± 2.4% of total factor V antigen, whereas sham immunodepletion removed 12.0 ± 3.0 % of multimerin and 4.0 ± 4.0% of factor V antigen (means ± 1 S.D. for 3 experiments). Analyses of serial factor V immunopurified samples indicated that platelets contained a subpopulation of multimerin polymers that resisted dissociation from factor V by denaturing detergent and comigrated with unusually large platelet factor V, before and after thrombin cleavage. The suggestion that only a subpopulation of multimerin was covalently linked to factor V was consistent with the estimated 17 fold molar excess of multimerin subunits to factor V molecules in platelets. The disulfide-linked complexes of multimerin and factor V in platelets, that are cleaved by thrombin to liberate factor Va, could be important for modulating the function of platelet factor V and its delivery onto activated platelets. Multimerin could function to hold about half of the platelet pool of factor V in covalent and noncovalent linkages, until granule release occurs and thrombin cleavages liberate factor Va for prothrombinase assembly on the platelet surface, akin to the way supporting scaffolds hold pieces of plastic models in a unit until their removal for model assembly is desired.