Early stages of fibrinogen to fibrin conversion studied by static and dynamic light scattering

Abstract

The early steps of fibrin aggregation induced by low Reptilase concentrations were studied by means of static and dynamic light scattering. In order to obtain information on the size and shape of the first oligomers, the angular dependence of the scattered intensity and the mean Rayleigh line width were measured. Under physiological pH and ionic strength, oligomer formation was detectable immediately after enzymatic activation. Comparison of the calculated data for different models with experimental results shows that the early fibrin polymerization proceeds as an end‐to‐end aggregation of elongated and possibly flexible molecules approximately 75 nm long.