Interspecies multimerization of vWF.

The interspecies multimerization of vWF was examined by expressing canine vW AgII in trans with human mature vWF and the converse and by analyzing the conditioned medium nonreduced on a 2% agarose–SDS gel. All samples were run on the same gel, and intervening (nonrelevant) lanes have been removed for clarity. The mock-transfected control is shown in lane 4. Human mature vWF expressed alone did not form multimers (lane 1), whereas expression in trans with human vW AgII resulted in multimerization (lane 2). The canine propeptide multimerizes human mature vWF when expressed in cis(lane 3) or trans (lane 5). Expression of the human propeptide in trans with canine mature vWF results in multimerized canine vWF (lane 6), similar to that found in canine plasma (lane 7).