Different inhibition of one and two chain tissue plasminogen activator by a placental inhibitor studied with two tripeptide-p-nitroanilide substrates.

The interaction of tissue plasminogen activator derived from a melanoma cell line with a specific plasminogen activator inhibitor from placental tissue, which inhibits urokinase and tissue plasminogen activator but not plasmin, was studied. Tissue plasminogen activator exists in two forms, a one chain and a two chain molecule. It was found that the two enzyme species each form 1:1 complexes with the inhibitor and that the two chain enzyme binds the inhibitor very strongly, Ki = 3 X 10(-10) mol/l, whereas the one chain enzyme forms a much weaker complex, Ki is approximately 10(-7) to 10(-8) mol/l. Substrate hydrolysis is much more efficiently catalysed by the two chain plasminogen activator than by the one chain activator.