von Willebrand Factor Protects Ca²⁺-Dependent Structure of the Factor VIII Light Chain.

Factor VIII (FVIII) cofactor function is dependent on the presence of divalent cation, since its active form is metal-linked heterotrimer as well as factor V (FV). The activity of FVIII (FVIII:C) and FV in normal plasma were completely and selectively inactivated by the treatment with divalent cation exchange resin, imidinoacetate. However, FVIII antigen (FVIII:Ag) was preserved, suggesting that deprivation of FVIII:C by the resin was not due to absorption of FVIII but due to inactivation. Both FVIII:Ag and FVIII:C of recombinant FVIII were decreased by treatment with the resin. However, FVIII:Ag but not FVIII:C, was preserved in FVIII and von Willebrand factor complex (FVIII/VWF). Sandwich ELISA using anti-A3 and anti-A2 monoclonal antibodies revealed that association with heavy and the light chains were impaired in the resin-treated FVIII. These results suggested that FVIII was inactivated by deprivation of the metal ion by the resin and that VWF protected cation-dependent FVIII structure. Therefore, we tested if the resin deprives the metal ion such as Ca²⁺ from FVIII or FVIII/VWF. [Ca²⁺] in FVIII preparation was decreased from 1.30 to 0.07 mM by the resin. Furthermore, [Ca²⁺] was decreased from 0.39 to 0.01 mM in FVIII/VWF preparation. [Ca²⁺] was recovered completely by elution with 1 N HCl from the resins used in both preparations. FVIII:C of the resin-treated FVIII/VWF was partially recovered by addition of Ca²⁺, whilst FVIII:C of the resin-treated FVIII was not recovered. When FVIII was treated with the resin after addition of [Ca²⁺], the inactivation of FVIII was dose-dependently inhibited by ~20 % (at [Ca²⁺]: ~75 mM). On the other hand, the inactivation of FVIII was inhibited by ~60 % (at [Ca²⁺]: ~25 mM) in FVIII/VWF preparation. Present results demonstrated that FVIII was selectively inactivated by the cation exchange resin due to deprivation of Ca²⁺. Kinetic experiments by surface plasmon resonance using BIAcore demonstrated that the resin-treated FVIII as well as treated C2 didn’t interact with phospholipid and VWF. Furthermore, immunoblot analysis using the resin-treated FVIII revealed that anti-A2 monoclonal antibody reacted with the heavy chain, whilst anti-A3 and anti-C2 antibodies failed to react with the light chain. On the other hand, these antibodies reacted with the light chain in the experiment using FVIII/VWF, indicating that VWF protects antigenic conformation of the FVIII light chain. Present findings suggest another protection mechanism of VWF on FVIII through stabilization of Ca²⁺-dependent structure of the FVIII light chain.