Hepatic removal of activated factor X by the perfused rabbit liver

Abstract

Activated factor X (Stuart), generated by incubation with either Russell''s viper venom or trypsin, is rapidly attenuated when perfused through isolated rabbit livers. The initial rate of disappearance of activated factor X during perfusion has a half-time of approximately 10 min. Precursor or unactivated factor X is not influenced by rabbit liver perfusion. Activated factor X is relatively stable in saline, but decays slowly in the presence of serum, with an apparent half-time of 52 min. These findings support the hypothesis that hepatic cellular clearance mechanisms play an important role in the removal of activated procoagulants.