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Giulio Caracciolo, Marco De Spirito, Agostina Congiu Castellano, Daniela Pozzi, Gino Amiconi, Angela De Pascalis, Ruggero Caminiti, Giuseppe Arcovito

Protofibrils within fibrin fibres are packed together in a regular array

The inner structure of fibrin fibres grown from fibrinogen solution activated by human -thrombin was investigated by means of an Energy Dispersive X-ray Diffraction technique. The experiments show evidence for the well-characterized 22.5 nm repeat distance, which indicates the high order of protofibril arrangement in the longitudinal direction of fibres. The diffraction pattern also manifested a further pronounced peak at 18.1 nm (and its second order reflection at 18.1/2) demonstrating the existence in fibrin of a high degree of lateral order. The reported results directly confirm, on unperturbed wet samples, that protofibrils closely associate giving rise to a crystalline axial and equatorial packing according to the conclusions of the multibundle model.

Thrombosis and Haemostasis, Schattauer

Print ISSN: 0340-6245
Volume: 89, 04/2003
Pages: 632 - 636

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