Fibrinopeptide A

Fibrinopeptide A is the 16-amino acid peptide released from the N-terminus of each A-alpha chain of human fibrinogen by thrombin. Removing Fibrinopeptide A exposes the A knob on the remaining molecule, enabling a fibrin knob-hole interaction. The released fragment and the exposed binding site are different objects.^[ref]

Release of Fibrinopeptide A provides a measurable record of a particular peptide bond cleavage. A kinetic study measured Fibrinopeptide A and Fibrinopeptide B separately: under its solution conditions, at least 97% of Fibrinopeptide B release followed Fibrinopeptide A release. The study also found that a change at the cleavage-site arginine strongly reduced catalytic efficiency, linking amino acid identity to reaction rate.^[ref]

For a counting example, $1\mathrm{nmol}$ of fully cleaved fibrinogen yields $2\mathrm{nmol}$ of Fibrinopeptide A, because each molecule has two A-alpha chains. Partial cleavage gives less; this stoichiometric upper limit does not specify the final fibrin network's geometry.