In Vivo Activity of Microbial Heparinase

Abstract

Heparin, prepared from mammalian intestinal mucosa, is the most widely used anticoagulant. It has been estimated, however, that the use of heparin leads to complications such as bleeding 8-33% of the time1. Of all prescription drugs, heparin is the drug responsible for the greatest number of deaths in otherwise healthy patients 2. For these reasons, it would be extremely useful to have a method to control blood heparin levels. We propose that this might be accomplished by using heparinase, an enzyme which specifically degrades the anticoagulant activity of heparin. In this report, we discuss the in vivo activity of both free and immobilized heparinase.