SummaryThrombomodulin and tissue factor activities have been coextracted from human placenta by several non-ionic detergents, n-octylglucoside and Triton X-100 being the most efficient ones. The n-octylglucoside placenta extract had a strong cofactor activity in the activation of human protein C by human a-thrombin. Treatment of the n-octylglucoside and Triton X-100 placenta extracts by phospholipases C and A2 revealed that an adequate phospholipid environment is necessary for maximal thrombomodulin activity, while it is well known that this is crucial for tissue factor activity. Soluble concanavalin A reversibly inhibited thrombomodulin and tissue factor activities to the same extent. Con-A-Sepharose affinity chromatography of the Triton X-100 placenta extract resulted in the same proportion (30%) of these two activities bound to the lectin, which were subsequently eluted in the same fractions by a linear gradient of α-methyl-D-glucoside. This observation suggests that thrombomodulin activity is associated to a glycoprotein component presenting the same degree of carbohydrate heterogeneity, involving α-D-mannosyl or α-D-glucosyl residues, as tissue factor apoprotein. Relipidation of fraction eluted by α-methyl-D-glucoside was essential to detect tissue factor activity, it was also necessary to recover full thrombomodulin activity. An antibody to human brain tissue factor apoprotein inhibited human placenta tissue factor activity, whereas thrombomodulin activity was unaffected, suggesting that these two cellular activities are related to distinct molecular entities sharing striking functional and structural similarities.

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Previous studies have shown that in the neuroblastoma x glioma hybrid cell line NG108-15 lithium is able to induce an increase in diacylglycerol levels. This effect was shown to be enhanced by the presence of bradykinin. Another striking effect of lithium was a marked gain in the level of the liponucleotide phosphatidyl-CMP. Increased phosphatidyl-CMP levels were detected in the presence of lithium alone but were considerably more pronounced in the presence of both lithium and bradykinin. These results are consistent with the inhibitory action of lithium on key enzymes of the degradation pathway of inositol phosphates, resulting in a decrease in cellular inositol content and in an elevation in levels of phosphorylated inositols. Comparison of the mass of the inositol phosphates and diacylglycerol showed that the lithium-induced diacylglycerol levels were substantially greater than would be expected from phosphoinositide hydrolysis alone. One possible reason for the increase in the level of diacylglycerol through the action of lithium is the reversal of the reaction for the formation of phosphatidyl-CMP. The resulting phosphatidic acid would then need to be further dephosphorylated to diacylglycerol. The lithium-induced elevation of phosphatidyl-CMP was prevented by addition of myo-inositol (10-30 mM), suggesting that the increase in liponucleotide level was due to depletion of cellular inositol. Under the same conditions the elevated diacylglycerol concentration remained unchanged. Consequently, phosphatidyl-CMP is not its source, and diacylglycerol may arise through an effect of lithium on the degradation of phospholipids other than phosphoinositides. The action of phospholipase C or D on phosphatidylcholine is the most likely mechanism.