MINIREVIEW
Control ofthecoagulationsystemby serpins
Getting bywithalittlehelpfrom glycosaminoglycans
Robert N. Pike
1,2
, Ashley M. Buckle
1,2
, Bernard F. le Bonniec
3
and Frank C. Church
4
1 Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Co-operative Research Centres for Vaccine Technology and Oral Health Sciences,
Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
2 The Victorian Bioinformatics Consortium, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
3 INSERM U428, Faculte
´
de Pharmacie, Universite
´
Paris V, Paris, France
4 Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Pharmacology, and Medicine, Carolina Cardiovascular Biology Center,
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Medicine, NC, USA
Introduction
Efficient functioning ofthecoagulationsystem is vital
to human health [1]. However, controlof this system,
in particular its regulation to prevent inappropriate,
excessive or mislocalized clotting of blood, is also vital
to prevent cardiovascular diseases such as deep vein
thrombosis.
Because many ofthe principal procoagulant compo-
nents ofthesystem are serine proteases, regulation of
the system is principally bythe action of serine protease
inhibitors. One major class of serine protease inhibitors
regulating procoagulant enzymes is the serpin super-
family [2]. The principal inhibitor of procoagulant
enzymes such as thrombin and factor Xa is the serpin
antithrombin (AT). There are, however, other serpins
that act to controlcoagulation enzymes, such as heparin
cofactor II (HC-II), protease nexin I and C1-inhibitor.
Some serpins, such as protein C inhibitor (PCI), act to
control the action of anticoagulant enzymes, such as
activated protein C.
A feature of many oftheserpins that control
enzymes in thecoagulationsystem is that they them-
selves are under thecontrolof glycosaminoglycans
Keywords
antithrombin; coagulation;
glycosaminoglycans; heparin cofactor II;
proteases; protein C inhibitor; serpins;
thrombin
Correspondence
R. N. Pike, Department of Biochemistry &
Molecular Biology, Monash University,
Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
Fax: +61 3 99054699
Tel: +61 3 99053923
E-mail: rob.pike@med.monash.edu.au
(Received 16 December 2004, accepted 14
July 2005)
doi:10.1111/j.1742-4658.2005.04880.x
Members ofthe serine protease inhibitor (serpin) superfamily play import-
ant roles in the inhibition of serine proteases involved in complex systems.
This is evident in the regulation ofcoagulation serine proteases, especially
the central enzyme in this system, thrombin. This review focuses on three
serpins which are known to be key players in the regulation of thrombin:
antithrombin and heparin cofactor II, which inhibit thrombin in its pro-
coagulant role, and protein C inhibitor, which primarily inhibits the throm-
bin ⁄ thrombomodulin complex, where thrombin plays an anticoagulant
role. Several structures have been published in the past few years which
have given great insight into the mechanism of action of these serpins and
have significantly added to a wealth of biochemical and biophysical studies
carried out previously. A major feature of these serpins is that they are
under thecontrolof glycosaminoglycans, which play a key role in acceler-
ating and localizing their action. While further work is clearly required
to understand the mechanism of action ofthe glycosaminoglycans, the bio-
logical mechanisms whereby cognate glycosaminoglycans for each serpin
come into contact withthe inhibitors also requires much further work in
this important field.
Abbreviations
AT, antithrombin; GAG, glycosaminoglycan; HC-II, heparin cofactor II; PCI, protein C inhibitor; serpin, serine protease inhibitor.
4842 FEBS Journal 272 (2005) 4842–4851 ª 2005 FEBS
(GAGs) [3]. Glycosaminoglycans such as heparin, hep-
aran sulfate and dermatan sulfate have been found to
significantly accelerate the interaction between serpins
and coagulation proteases, usually increasing the reac-
tion rates from values that are not relevant under phy-
siological conditions to rates that are relevant. This
control over the action ofserpins that have the partic-
ular role of regulating procoagulant enzymes is prob-
ably vital in that it allows the enzymes to act, as they
must, to clot blood. It follows that theserpins mostly
act to localize the clotting process, which is likely to
be the crucial element in the regulation of clotting, and
also to the eventual shutting off ofthe clotting process,
although this latter element is most probably a com-
plex multifactorial process also involving the platelets
and endothelium.
This review will examine the basic elements of the
structure and function oftheserpins involved in con-
trolling the central coagulation enzyme, thrombin, and
their controlby GAGs. Control over other enzymes,
such as factor Xa, will also be mentioned where rele-
vant. We will focus on antithrombin, heparin cofactor
II and protein C inhibitor.
General mechanism of serpin action
Serpins are a highly evolved family of proteins, which
have a mechanism of action that appears to be com-
mon to most members ofthe family [4]. The mechan-
ism, hotly debated for many years, involves the attack
of the protease on the P1-P1¢ bond in the reactive cen-
tre loop (RCL) ofthe serpin [5]. The catalysis of the
peptide bond cleavage appears to be arrested at the
acyl intermediate bythe unique action ofthe serpin,
whereby the RCL ofthe serpin inserts into the major
A b -sheet causing the protease to be rapidly translo-
cated fromthe top to the bottom ofthe inhibitor [6].
In the process, the structure ofthe protease appears to
be deformed by being ‘crushed’ against the bottom of
the inhibitor [7]. In particular, this deformation of the
protease affects the geometry ofthe catalytic triad,
preventing the completion of catalysis beyond the acyl
intermediate and therefore trapping the protease in a
covalent bond withthe serpin. The mechanism is a sui-
cide substrate mechanism, irreversibly inactivating the
serpin. The serpin–enzyme complex is later removed
from the circulation bythe action of receptors which
specifically recognize the inhibited conformation of the
serpin (reviewed in [4]).
The structure and mechanism ofserpins is highly
amenable to control via binding of molecules such as
GAGs, but the same level of conformational mobility
which aids in the function ofserpins also renders them
susceptible to mutations which cause theA b-sheet in
particular to become susceptible to insertion ofthe ser-
pin’s own RCL. This results in either a so-called latent
state, or in polymers of serpins, where the insertion of
another molecule’s RCL takes place [8]. Both of these
result in the irreversible inactivation (generally) of the
serpins, and, in the case ofthe anticoagulant serpins, a
lowering ofthe effective concentration ofthe serpins
and therefore diseases such as thrombosis [8].
Antithrombin
Antithrombin is arguably the major anticoagulant ser-
pin. It is a 58 kDa glycoprotein, which circulates in
blood at a concentration of 125 lgÆmL
)1
(2.3 lm)
[9]. AT inhibits a large number of serine proteases of
the coagulationsystem including thrombin (factor
IIa) and factors IXa, Xa, XIa and XIIa. The princi-
pal targets ofthe serpin are usually regarded as being
thrombin and factor Xa, although it is likely that
inhibition ofthe other enzymes by this serpin is
also important.
The serpin has a structure (Fig. 1) which is highly
similar to that of other serpins, witha few important
features. In its native state the RCL is partially inser-
ted into the top oftheA b-sheet ofthe molecule [10].
Upon the addition of heparin, the RCL is expelled
from theA b-sheet bya closing ofthe sheet caused by
a conformational transition in the molecule following
the binding ofa specific heparin pentasaccharide
sequence to a highly positively charged cluster located
at the D-helix ofthe serpin [11,12]. The pentasaccha-
ride sequence of heparin on its own is able to induce
the conformational change in AT [13,14] and this
change in the structure ofthe serpin is apparently able
to substantially accelerate the interaction with serine
proteases such as factor Xa, but not enzymes such as
thrombin [15]. It is thought that the overall increase in
the rate of interaction with factor Xa brought about
by the heparin pentasaccharide-mediated conforma-
tional change occurs through a combination of
the changes in the structure ofthe RCL, allowing the
interaction of residues on the RCL with subsites in the
active site of fXa [16,17], and the exposure ofa new
exosite on the serpin for interaction withthe protease
[18,19]. Given the plasma concentration of AT and the
rates of interaction in the presence and absence of hep-
arin pentasaccharide (Table 1), one can calculate that
the half-life of enzyme activity in the absence of hep-
arin pentasaccharide would be 133 s (full lifetime,
22 min), and this would be 1.33 s in the presence
of heparin pentasaccharide (full lifetime, 0.22 min).
This action ofthe synthetic heparin pentasaccharide is
R. N. Pike et al. Controlofthecoagulationsystemby serpins
FEBS Journal 272 (2005) 4842–4851 ª 2005 FEBS 4843
apparently effective enough, and has allowed its intro-
duction as a new antithrombotic drug [20].
Heparin pentasaccharide on its own does not sub-
stantially increase the rate of inhibition of some coagu-
lation enzymes, such as thrombin, indicating that the
conformational change in AT alone does not cause
much acceleration in the rate of interaction [15]. For
full acceleration ofthe rate of inhibition of enzymes
such as thrombin, full-length heparin (> 26 saccharide
units in length) is required. The longer chains of hep-
arin appear to accelerate the interaction between AT
and thrombin by ‘templating’ the serpin and enzyme,
binding to both molecules (via an exosite on the prote-
ase) and facilitating their diffusion towards each other
in solution [21]. This accelerates the interaction of AT
with thrombin 1000-fold and with fXa 10 000-fold
[22]. With regard to the latter interaction, it is clear
that calcium ions are required to overcome the negat-
ive effects ofthe Gla-domain of factor Xa on the tem-
plating interaction mediated by heparin. For thrombin,
this means that AT controls the enzyme in 0.27 s in
the presence of heparin, compared to 4.4 min in the
absence of heparin. Clearly this is important, as the
impairment of heparin binding on mutants of AT has
disease-causing consequences [23]. Recently, the struc-
ture of AT templated to a genetically modified form of
thrombin bya synthetic heparin has been solved
[24,25]. These structures have supported much of what
Native Antithrombin - Heparin Native Antithrombin
Cleaved Protein C InhibitorNative Heparin Cofactor 2
Fig. 1. The structures ofserpins controlling
thrombin. The structures of AT with and
without the heparin pentasaccharide bound,
heparin cofactor II and cleaved protein C
inhibitor are shown as indicated. In all of the
structures, theA b-sheet is shown in red,
the B b-sheet in green and the C b-sheet in
yellow. The reactive centre loop is shown in
magenta and the D-helix in dark blue. The
H-helix is shown in dark pink in the protein
C inhibitor structure. Positively charged resi-
dues on the D- and H-helices and the hep-
arin pentasaccharide are shown in ball and
stick format.
Control ofthecoagulationsystembyserpins R. N. Pike et al.
4844 FEBS Journal 272 (2005) 4842–4851 ª 2005 FEBS
has been published before in terms ofthe mechanism
by which templating occurs and have provided addi-
tional insights into the conformation ofthe reactive
centre loop of AT when it is in complex witha target
protease.
It is interesting to note that clot bound thrombin
and factor Xa are protected from inactivation by AT
[26,27]. This is consistent withthe role of AT in local-
izing the clot and preventing it from spreading too far,
rather than actually shutting down clotting. It would
appear that AT might localize to clots due to the expo-
sure of heparan sulfate chains on the endothelium
following vascular disruption or the localized release
of heparin fromthe granules of mast cells which are
found lining the vasculature [28,29]. Thus the AT may
act as a sentinel to prevent escape of active procoagu-
lant enzymes from their site of action, allowing clot-
ting to proceed where it is required, but not allowing it
to spread.
Antithrombin is clearly critical to survival. Homo-
zygous null mutants of AT die in utero [30] and hetero-
zygous mutants which have about 50% ofthe normal
concentrations of AT are predisposed towards disease
[31]. The experiments using the genetically manipulated
mice have confirmed a host of studies which reveal that
mutations of AT which impair its normal function
predispose patients to thrombotic disorders [8], partic-
ularly when found in combination with other predispo-
sing factors [32].
Heparin cofactor II
Heparin cofactor II mRNA has been detected only in
human liver, and the normal concentration of HC-II
in blood plasma is 1.2 lm and the mature protein is
65.6 kDa [33]. The HC-II reactive site peptide bond is
Leu444-Ser445 [34,35]. Intriguingly, HC-II is a very
specific inhibitor of thrombin, but no other serine pro-
tease in blood coagulation; however, it does exhibit
some inhibitory action to the chymotrypsin-like pro-
teases, cathepsin G and chymotrypsin [36,37].
Heparin cofactor II rapidly inhibits thrombin fol-
lowing binding to GAGs (Table 1). However, the
GAG specificity of HC-II is much less discriminating
than that of AT. While both heparin ⁄ heparan sulfate
and dermatan sulfate GAGs are physiological activa-
tors of HC-II, many different polyanions, including
polyphosphates, polysulfates and polycarboxylates, are
able to accelerate HC-II inhibition of thrombin [38,39].
The GAG binding site of HC-II has been identified as
the D-helix region [40–52]. The effects of mutagenesis
of thrombin anion-binding exosites-1 and -2 on GAG
acceleration ofthe HC-II–thrombin reaction suggest
that the template mechanism makes only a minor con-
tribution to heparin acceleration and no contribution
to dermatan sulfate acceleration [42,45,49,50,53].
Instead, the major mechanism of GAG enhancement
appears to be allosteric and uses conformational acti-
vation ofthe serpin. Heparin cofactor II possesses a
unique amino-terminal extension that contains two
tandem repeats rich in acidic amino acids with two sul-
fated tyrosines (contained in the region encompassed
by residues 54–75). The acidic region repeats of HC-II
are significantly homologous to the carboxyl-terminal
sequence of hirudin (the thrombin inhibitor from the
medicinal leech), which binds to thrombin anion-bind-
ing exosite-1 [54,55]. Glycosaminoglycan binding to
HC-II is thought to allosterically activate the serpin
by displacing the acidic amino terminus from an intra-
molecular interaction withthe basic GAG binding site
and freeing it for binding to the thrombin anion-bind-
ing exosite-1 [44,46,47,51]. An alternative allosteric
mechanism has been suggested based on the recently
described crystal structures of both native HC-II
(Fig. 1) and HC-II complexed with catalytically inac-
tive S195A thrombin [40]. In a surprising revelation,
the native HC-II structure showed that the hinge of
the reactive centre loop is partially inserted into the A
b-sheet, similar to the situation seen in native AT, and
the short segment ofthe amino terminus that was visi-
ble suggested that this region might be interacting with
an alternative basic site on the serpin near the reactive
loop [40]. Thus, GAG activation of HC-II was
Table 1. Second order rates of association (k
ass
) values for the
reaction ofserpinswith proteases in the presence and absence of
a range of GAGs (values are representative of those reported in a
range of publications cited in this article).
Serpin Enzyme Glycosaminoglycan k
ass
(M
)1
Æs
)1
)
Antithrombin Thrombin – 1 · 10
4
Heparin 4 · 10
7
Heparan 2 · 10
7
High affinity heparin 4 · 10
7
Heparin pentasaccharide 2 · 10
4
Factor Xa – 2 · 10
3
Heparin 4 · 10
7
Heparan 2 · 10
7
High affinity heparin 4 · 10
7
Heparin pentasaccharide 5 · 10
5
HCII Thrombin – 7 · 10
2
Dermatan sulfate 1 · 10
7
Heparin 1 · 10
7
PCI Thrombin Heparin 5 · 10
5
fXa Heparin 3 · 10
3
aPC – 1 · 10
4
Heparin 2 · 10
4
Heparin ⁄ calcium 3 · 10
6
R. N. Pike et al. Controlofthecoagulationsystemby serpins
FEBS Journal 272 (2005) 4842–4851 ª 2005 FEBS 4845
proposed to resemble AT, where GAG binding to the
D-helix causes the expulsion ofthe buried reactive cen-
tre loop hinge fromtheA b-sheet, which in turn alters
the amino-terminal tail interaction to promote binding
to the thrombin anion-binding exosite-1. Regardless of
which allosteric mechanism turns out to be more cor-
rect, it is obvious that release ofthe amino-terminal
portion of HC-II to bind to thrombin anion-binding
exosite-1 is a primary part ofthe allosteric activation
mechanism.
For many years, the physiological activator of HC-II
has been assumed to be extravascular dermatan sulfate
[56–64], which would complement the intravascular
effect of heparan sulfate binding to AT. Maimone and
Tollefsen [60] described the structure ofa high affinity
dermatan sulfate hexasaccharide that bound to HC-II.
Furthermore, dermatan sulfate proteoglycans on the
surface of cultured fibroblasts and vascular smooth
muscle cells and purified biglycan and decorin derma-
tan sulfate proteoglycans accelerate the rate of throm-
bin inhibition by HC-II [58,62]. Dermatan sulfate
proteoglycans in the extracellular matrices and on cer-
tain cell surfaces may localize HC-II to sites appropri-
ate for inhibiting thrombin. The murine knock-out
studies of HC-II revealed a role for this serpin in regu-
lating thrombin formation, especially in the arterial cir-
culation [65]. Recent studies using HC-II deficient mice
confirmed that the antithrombotic effect of exogenously
added dermatan sulfate is due to its interaction with
HC-II [66]. Collectively, these findings imply that
HC-II has a major role in thrombin regulation at extra-
vascular tissue sites following vessel injury.
Protein C inhibitor (also named PAI-3)
Protein C inhibitor antigen is found in human blood
plasma (3.6–6.8 lgÆmL
)1
or 90 nm) [67], numerous
other human tissues, in urine and several other body
fluids (e.g. tears, saliva, cerebral spinal fluid, amniotic
fluid), and in seminal fluid at 200 lgÆmL
)1
, which is
almost 40 times the amount in plasma [68–76]. The
mature protein is 57 kDa [77,78]. The PCI reactive site
peptide bond is Arg354-Ser355, and PCI displays a
protease inhibition profile for numerous ‘arginine-
specific’ serine proteases, including trypsin, thrombin
(in the absence and presence of thrombomodulin), acti-
vated protein C, acrosin, kallikrein, urokinase, tissue
plasminogen activator and factor XIa [69–71,74,77–
91]. The GAG binding site in protein C inhibitor
appears to be localized not to the D-helix as in AT
and HC-II, but to the H-helix region, with possible
contributions fromthe N-terminal A
+
-helix region
[92–96]. Both regions have sequences of basic residues
consistent witha general heparin-binding consensus
sequence motif. Mutagenesis of four basic residues in
the H-helix, Lys266, Arg269, Lys270 and Lys273, in
recombinant PCI has shown that all of these residues
are important for heparin binding. Withthe recent
report ofthe crystal structure of cleaved-PCI (Fig. 1)
[97], there are clearly other basic residues near the pri-
mary H-helix GAG binding site that probably contri-
bute to GAG ⁄ polyanion binding (including Arg26,
Arg27, Arg213, Arg234, Arg229, Lys255 and Arg362).
In contrast to both AT and HC-II, there is no
evidence for an allosteric activation mechanism and
instead the mechanism appears to involve only a
ternary complex with heparin bridging the serpin
and protease [61,98]. As found for other serine pro-
teases with c-carboxyglutamic acid domains, heparin
bridging of PCI and activated protein C is only
modest unless calcium ions are present to bind the
acidic domain and prevent its interaction with the
heparin-binding site ofthe protease [89,91]. Throm-
bin is also inhibited by PCI and the inhibition is
accelerated by heparin, but the heparin-enhanced rate
does not appear to be physiologically relevant when
compared to thrombin inhibition rates by both
AT-heparin ⁄ heparan sulfate and HC-II-heparin ⁄
dermatan sulfate. A more physiologically significant
rate of thrombin inhibition by PCI results when
thrombin binds to thrombomodulin, the endothelial
cell receptor ⁄ proteoglycan [84,86,90,99]. This is con-
sistent with PCI regulating the anticoagulant protein
C pathway, because the thrombin-thrombomodulin
complex initiates this pathway bythe activation of
zymogen protein C to an anticoagulant serine prote-
ase. Interestingly, the increased rate of thrombin
inhibition when bound to thrombomodulin that is
measured with PCI does not involve the chondroitin
sulfate moiety of thrombomodulin, but rather is
apparently promoted bythe epidermal growth factor-
like domains of thrombomodulin.
Like HC-II, PCI has a broad GAG ⁄ polyanion
specificity for acceleration of protease inhibition reac-
tions [61,98]. A variety of GAGs and polyanions
[including heparin, low molecular weight heparin,
heparan sulfate, fucoidan, and other polyanions
(phosvitin)] accelerate both thrombin and activated
protein C inhibition by PCI; this is consistent with a
relatively nonspecific heparin-binding site in protein
C inhibitor. In contrast to AT, there is no evidence
for any sequence-specific binding of heparin ⁄ heparan
sulfate to PCI. In a cell-derived series of studies,
heparan sulfate-containing proteoglycans were
involved in binding to PCI using cultured human
epithelial kidney tumor cells (TCL-598); furthermore,
Control ofthecoagulationsystembyserpins R. N. Pike et al.
4846 FEBS Journal 272 (2005) 4842–4851 ª 2005 FEBS
dermatan sulfate-containing proteoglycans were impli-
cated in binding PCI in the extracellular matrix
[70,100]. However, identification ofthe physiological
proteoglycan responsible for acceleration of PCI’s
activity in vivo has not been clearly identified.
Overall conclusions and future
directions
It is readily apparent that the action ofthe three ser-
pins discussed here is highly controlled by interactions
with GAGs. There are differences in the way which
each ofthe three serpins bind the GAGs, but common
to each is that GAGs increase the rate of interaction
with target proteases. The interaction of AT with hep-
arin is clearly the most understood in structural terms,
although a number of elements ofthe conformational
change brought about in AT by heparin remain a little
unclear. Further structural studies are obviously
required to fully understand the interaction of HC-II
and PCI with cognate GAGs.
The action of GAGs, in particular that of heparin
on AT, has been very successfully exploited in clinical
practice and this has been brought to even greater
sophistication bythe introduction of synthetic ana-
logues of heparin. There is still a great need to fully
understand the situation in the physiological setting,
however. It is not completely clear when each serpin
comes into contact withthe GAGs that modulate its
activity and how this leads to the vital regulation
which evidently occurs. This is a major area of basic
research for the immediate and medium term future.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported bythe National Health &
Medical Research Council of Australia, the Austra-
lian Research Council, the National Heart Founda-
tion of Australia (to RNP and AMB), Research
Grants HL-06350 and HL-32656 fromthe National
Institutes of Health (to FCC), the Institut National
de la Sante
´
et de la Recherche Me
´
dicale of France
and the Foundation pour la Recherche Me
´
dicale of
France (to BFLB).
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