Comparison of the catalytic properties of thrombin and trypsin by kinetic analysis on the basis of active enzyme concentration.

The interaction of bovine thrombin [EC 3.4.21.5] with synthetic substrates and products was studied. The enzyme was purified from Parke-Davis topical thrombin. The purification process afforded some preparations with different clottin specific activities but with similar esterase specific activities. The preparation having highest clotting specific activity and that having lowest clotting activity were tentatively named thrombin-C and thrombin-E, respectively. Kinetic parameters for the hydrolysis of synthetic substrates and normality titrants were determined on the basis of active enzyme quantity, which was assayed by means of a fluorometric normality titrant. It was shown that thrombin-E was acylated by the substrates more slowly than thrombin-C, while deacylation proceeded at similar rates in the two preparations. The results were also compared with those obtained with bovine trypsin [EC 3.4.21.4]. The acylation rates of both thrombin preparations were markedly lower than that of trypsin, while the deacylation rates of the former were only slightly lower than that of the latter. The effects of various product-type inhibitors, such as benzyloxycarbonyl-, benzoyl-, and tosyl-L-arginine, were also examined. Thrombin was affected by these inhibitors not competitively, though trypsin was inhibited competitively.