Abstract
A correlated study has been made of various divalent cations which are known to accelerate the formation of visible clots upon the addition of thrombin to fibrinogen. The experiments described demonstrate that calcium ions accelerate the aggregation of monomeric fibrin but have almost no effect upon the rate of release of fibrinopeptides from fibrinogen. On the contrary, magnesium ions do not accelerate the aggregation of monomeric fibrin but rather seem to accelerate the release of fibrinopeptides from the fibrinogen. The mechanism of the clot-promoting effect of various divalent cations probably differs from each other. The degree of the acceleration on aggregation caused by the mixtures of various divalent cations can be determined by the amount of the cation having the most potent accelerating effect in the mixtures.
