Plasma thrombomodulin as a marker of endothelium damage.

A soluble form of thrombomodulin (TM), an anticoagulant proteoglycan of the endothelial cell membrane, exists in plasma. We recently developed an ELISA assay to measure it. Plasma TM level depends both on endothelium integrity and on the clearance of the molecule. It increases with endothelium damage as seen in different pathological situations.