Hemophilia pathophysiology

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Pathophysiology

Factor VIII production, processing and structure

FVIII is a glycoprotein procofactor. Although the primary site of release in humans is ambiguous, it is synthesized and released into the bloodstream by the vascular, glomerular, and tubular endothelium, and the sinusoidal cells of the liver. Hemophilia A has been corrected by liver transplantation. Transplanting hepatocytes was ineffective, but liver endothelial cells were effective.In the blood, it mainly circulates in a stable noncovalent complex with von Willebrand factor. Upon activation by thrombin, (factor IIa), it dissociates from the complex to interact with factor IXa in the coagulation cascade. It is a cofactor to factor IXa in the activation of factor X, which, in turn, with its cofactor factor Va, activates more thrombin. Thrombin cleaves fibrinogen into fibrin which polymerizes and crosslinks (using factor XIII) into a blood clot. No longer protected by vWF, activated FVIII is proteolytically inactivated in the process (most prominently by activated protein C and factor IXa) and quickly cleared from the blood stream.

Factor VIII is not affected by liver disease. In fact, levels usually are elevated in such instances.

Von Willebrand Factor[vWF] synthesis, structure and function

vWF is a large multimeric glycoprotein present in blood plasma and produced constitutively as ultra-large vWF in endothelium (in the Weibel-Palade bodies), megakaryocytes (α-granules of platelets), and subendothelial connective tissue.The basic vWF monomer is a 2050-amino acid protein. Every monomer contains a number of specific domains with a specific function. Von Willebrand factor primary function is binding to other proteins, in particular factor VIII, and it is important in platelet adhesion to wound sites. It is not an enzyme and, thus, has no catalytic activity. vWF binds to a number of cells and molecules. The most important ones are:

• Factor VIII is bound to vWF while inactive in circulation; factor VIII degrades rapidly when not bound to vWF. Factor VIII is released from vWF by the action of thrombin.
• vWF binds to collagen, e.g., when it is exposed in endothelial cells due to damage occurring to the blood vessel.
• vWF binds to platelet gpIb when it forms a complex with gpIX and gpV; this binding occurs under all circumstances, but is most efficient under high shear stress (i.e., rapid blood flow in narrow blood vessels, see below).
• vWF binds to other platelet receptors when they are activated, e.g., by thrombin (i.e., when coagulation has been stimulated).

vWF plays a major role in blood coagulation. Therefore, vWF deficiency or dysfunction (von Willebrand disease) leads to a bleeding tendency, which is most apparent in tissues having high blood flow shear in narrow vessels. From studies it appears that vWF uncoils under these circumstances, decelerating passing platelets. Calcium enhances the refolding rate of vWF A2 domain, allowing the protein to act as a shear force sensor.

Factor IX synthesis, structure and function

• Factor IX (or Christmas factor) is one of the serine proteases of the coagulation system; it belongs to peptidase family S1. Deficiency of this protein causes hemophilia B. Factors VII, IX, and X all play key roles in blood coagulation and also share a common domain architecture. The factor IX protein is composed of four protein domains: the Gla domain, two tandem copies of the EGF domain and a C-terminal trypsin-like peptidase domain which carries out the catalytic cleavage.The N-terminal EGF domain has been shown to at least in part be responsible for binding tissue factor. Wilkinson et al. conclude that residues 88 to 109 of the second EGF domain mediate binding to platelets and assembly of the factor X activating complex. The structures of all four domains have been solved. A structure of the two EGF domains and the trypsin-like domain was determined for the pig protein. The structure of the Gla domain, which is responsible for Ca(II)-dependent phospholipid binding, was also determined by NMR. Several structures of 'super active' mutants have been solved, which reveal the nature of factor IX activation by other proteins in the clotting cascade.
• Factor IX is produced as a zymogen, an inactive precursor. It is processed to remove the signal peptide, glycosylated and then cleaved by factor XIa (of the contact pathway) or factor VIIa (of the tissue factor pathway) to produce a two-chain form where the chains are linked by a disulfide bridge. When activated into factor IXa, in the presence of Ca2+, membrane phospholipids, and a Factor VIII cofactor, it hydrolyses one arginine-isoleucine bond in factor X to form factor Xa. Factor IX is inhibited by antithrombin. Factor IX expression increases with age in humans and mice. In mouse models mutations within the promoter region of factor IX have an age-dependent phenotype.

Clotting cascade

The coagulation cascade of secondary hemostasis has two initial pathways which lead to fibrin formation. These are the contact activation pathway (also known as the intrinsic pathway), and the tissue factor pathway (also known as the extrinsic pathway) which both lead to the same fundamental reactions that produce fibrin. It was previously thought that the two pathways of coagulation cascade were of equal importance, but it is now known that the primary pathway for the initiation of blood coagulation is the tissue factor pathway. The pathways are a series of reactions, in which a zymogen (inactive enzyme precursor) of a serine protease and its glycoprotein co-factor are activated to become active components that then catalyze the next reaction in the cascade, ultimately resulting in cross-linked fibrin. Coagulation factors are generally indicated by Roman numerals, with a lowercase a appended to indicate an active form. The coagulation factors are generally serine proteases (enzymes), which act by cleaving downstream proteins. There are some exceptions. For example, FVIII and FV are glycoproteins, and Factor XIII is a transglutaminase. The coagulation factors circulate as inactive zymogens. The coagulation cascade is therefore classically divided into three pathways. The tissue factor and contact activation pathways both activate the "final common pathway" of factor X, thrombin and fibrin.

Tissue factor pathway (extrinsic)

The main role of the tissue factor pathway is to generate a "thrombin burst", a process by which thrombin, the most important constituent of the coagulation cascade in terms of its feedback activation roles, is released very rapidly. FVIIa circulates in a higher amount than any other activated coagulation factor. The process includes the following steps:

• Following damage to the blood vessel, FVII leaves the circulation and comes into contact with tissue factor (TF) expressed on tissue-factor-bearing cells (stromal fibroblasts and leukocytes), forming an activated complex (TF-FVIIa).
• TF-FVIIa activates FIX and FX.
• FVII is itself activated by thrombin, FXIa, FXII and FXa.
• The activation of FX (to form FXa) by TF-FVIIa is almost immediately inhibited by tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI).
• FXa and its co-factor FVa form the prothrombinase complex, which activates prothrombin to thrombin.
• Thrombin then activates other components of the coagulation cascade, including FV and FVIII (which activates FXI, which, in turn, activates FIX), and activates and releases FVIII from being bound to vWF.
• FVIIa is the co-factor of FIXa, and together they form the "tenase" complex, which activates FX; and so the cycle continues. ("Tenase" is a contraction of "ten" and the suffix "-ase" used for enzymes.)

Contact activation pathway (intrinsic)

The contact activation pathway begins with formation of the primary complex on collagen by high-molecular-weight kininogen (HMWK),prekallikrein, and FXII (Hageman factor). Prekallikrein is converted to kallikrein and FXII becomes FXIIa. FXIIa converts FXI into FXIa. Factor XIa activates FIX, which with its co-factor FVIIIa form the tenase complex, which activates FX to FXa. The minor role that the contact activation pathway has in initiating clot formation can be illustrated by the fact that patients with severe deficiencies of FXII, HMWK, and prekallikrein do not have a bleeding disorder. Instead, contact activation system seems to be more involved in inflammation.[7]

Final common pathway

The division of coagulation in two pathways is mainly artificial, it originates from laboratory tests in which clotting times were measured after the clotting was initiated by glass (intrinsic pathway) or by thromboplastin (a mix of tissue factor and phospholipids). In fact thrombin is present from the very beginning, already when platelets are making the plug.Thrombin has a large array of functions, not only the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin, the building block of a hemostatic plug. In addition, it is the most important platelet activator and on top of that it activates Factors VIII and V and their inhibitor protein C (in the presence of thrombomodulin), and it activates Factor XIII, which forms covalent bonds that crosslink the fibrin polymers that form from activated monomers.

Following activation by the contact factor or tissue factor pathways, the coagulation cascade is maintained in a prothrombotic state by the continued activation of FVIII and FIX to form the tenase complex, until it is down-regulated by the anticoagulant pathways