Plasminogen

Introduction: Plasminogen

Description of Plasminogen

Plasminogen: Plasminogen is a precursor of the potent serine protease plasmin and occurs at high concentrations in body fluids. Activation of plasminogen to the enzymatically active form plasmin is a proteolytic event and tightly controlled. A key feature in the formation and stability of plasmin activity is the attachment of plasminogen (and also of the formed plasmin) onto lysine-containing residues on target protein, such as fibrin. Plasmin cleaves fibrin clots and e.g. non-collagenous proteins of basement membranes and extracellular matrices, such as laminin and fibronectin. Plasmin also activates latent pro-collagenases and is thought to be crucial for the penetration of metastatic tumor cells into basement membranes.
Source: Diseases Database

Plasminogen: precursor of fibrinolysin (plasmin); a beta-globulin found mostly in association with fibrinogen in plasma; plasminogen activators change it to fibrinolysin.
Source: CRISP

Plasminogen: Precursor of fibrinolysin (plasmin). It is a single-chain beta-globulin of molecular weight 80-90,000 found mostly in association with fibrinogen in plasma; plasminogen activators change it to fibrinolysin. It is used in wound debriding and has been investigated as a thrombolytic agent.
Source: MeSH 2007