A very stable and potent fibrinolytic enzyme found in earthworm Lumbricus rubellus autolysate

Abstract

1. 1. The autolysate of earthworms was found to exhibit powerful fibrin and thrombin substrate hydrolyzing activity. 2. 2. It also showed a clot-forming activity in the fibrinogen- or plasma-added system. 3. 3. Zymography revealed that there were three active components with mol. wts of 40,000, 21,000 and 15,000 in the autolysate. 4. 4. The major form with a mol. wt 35,500 (by SDS-PAGE) was further purified. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of this enzyme (16 residues) was similar to that of the swine pancreatic proelastase.