Some symmetry considerations for the fibrinogen-fibrin assembly system

✍ Scribed by Doolittle, Russell F.

• Book ID: 102924391
• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1974
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 516 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0091-7419
• DOI: 10.1002/jss.400020208

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The formation of fibrin gels involves many operations which are fundamental to other assembly schemes, including limited proteolysis, spontaneous associations, and covalent stabilization. Despite a quarter century of intensive effort by a large number of laboratories, the orientation of the fundamental units in the gel is not known, nor, for that matter, is the arrangement of the subunit chains within the parent fibrinogen molecule. In this article some symmetry considerations are discussed in light of the geometry of the starting molecules and conditions necessitated by the covalent stitching which occurs after gel formation. Only a dimeric molecule in which the twofold symmetry axis coincides with a minor axis of an elongated fibrinogen molecule satisfies all the conditions.