Abstract
We have previously described two unrelated individuals with homozygous Hageman trait (Factor XII deficiency) whose plasmas contained nonfunctional material immunologically indistinguishable from normal Hageman factor (HF). Abnormal HF from the plasma of one these subjects has now been purified to homogeneity, as judged by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, alkaline disc gel electrophoresis, and immunoelectrophoresis. Purified abnormal HF had no clot-promoting activity, but showed the same specific antigenicity as purified normal HF by an immunoassay. The abnormal HF was of a single chain polypeptide with the same molecular weight (80,000) as normal HF and was positively stained by periodic acid-Schiff reagent. Both normal and abnormal HF had similar amino acid compositions and isoelectric points (pI 6.5 approximately 7.1). When 125I-labeled abnormal HF and 131I-labeled normal HF were mixed with normal plasma and exposed to glass, both HF underwent an identical pattern of cleavage, yielding 52,000- and 30,000-mol wt fragments. Similarly, abnormal HF was fragmented by trypsin in the same way as normal HF, but no prekallikrein-activating activity was generated after cleavage. [3H]Diisopropyl phosphorofluoridate was incorporated into a 29,000-mol wt fragment of the trypsin-cleaved normal HF, but not into that of the trypsin-cleaved abnormal HF. These data suggest that the molecular defect in this abnormal HF resides at or near the active site serine residue in the 30,000-mol wt part of the molecule.