Towards understanding the effect of fibrinogen interactions on fibrin gel structure

Fibrin gelation involves the enzymatic conversion of the plasma protein fibrinogen to fibrin monomers which then polymerize to form the gel that is a major structural component of a blood clot. Because fibrinogen provides the material from which fibrin is made, it is generally regarded as promoting the gelation process. However, fibrinogen can bind to a site on a fibrin oligomer, preventing another fibrin oligomer from binding there, thus slowing the polymerization process. "Soluble fibrin oligomers," which are mixtures of fibrin and fibrinogen, are found in the blood plasma and serve as biomarkers for various clotting disorders, so understanding the interplay between fibrin and fibrinogen during fibrin polymerization may have medical importance. We present a kinetic gelation model of fibrin polymerization which accounts for the dual and antagonistic roles of fibrinogen. It builds on our earlier model of fibrin polymerization that proposed a novel mechanism for branch formation, which is a necessary component of gelation. This previous model captured salient experimental observations regarding the determinants of the structure of the gel, but did not include fibrinogen binding. Here, we add to that model reactions between fibrinogen and fibrin, so oligomers are now mixtures of fibrin and fibrinogen, and characterizing their dynamics leads to equations of substantially greater complexity than previously. Using a moment generating function approach, we derive a closed system of moment equations and we track their dynamics until the finite time blow-up of specific second moments indicates that a gel has formed. In simulations begun with an initial mixture of fibrin and fibrinogen monomers, a sufficiently high relative concentration of fibrinogen prevents gelation; the critical concentration increases with the branch formation rate. In simulations begun with only fibrinogen monomers that are converted to fibrin at a specified rate, the rates of conversion, fibrinogen binding to oligomers, and branch formation together determine whether a gel forms, how long it takes to form, and the structural properties of the gel that results.