conclusions nx-dcp correlated positively with fibrosis stage and could discriminate well between hcv-related patients with or without significant fibrosis. moreover, nx-dcp had a similar predictive ability to the abovementioned models, and thereby could be a new noninvasive prediction tool for fibrosis. results increase in serum nx-dcp was significantly related to increase in fibrosis stage (p ...

Vitamin K deficiency or administration of vitamin K antagonists results in the biosynthesis of abnormal des-’y-carboxy forms of the vitamin K-dependent proteins. Monoclonal antibody H-i 1 binds several vitamin K-dependent proteins at a determinant that includes the first two residues of ‘y-carboxyglutamic acid. Antibody H-i 1 binds fully carboxylated prothrombin and protein C in the presence of...

Vitamin K deficiency or administration of vitamin K antagonists results in the biosynthesis of abnormal des-gamma-carboxy forms of the vitamin K-dependent proteins. Monoclonal antibody H-11 binds several vitamin K-dependent proteins at a determinant that includes the first two residues of gamma-carboxyglutamic acid. Antibody H-11 binds fully carboxylated prothrombin and protein C in the presenc...

OBJECTIVE Vitamin K-dependent proteins (VKDPs), which require post-translational modification to achieve biological activity, seem to contribute to thrombus formation, vascular calcification, and vessel stiffness. Whether VKDP activity is prospectively associated with incident cardiovascular disease has not been studied. APPROACH AND RESULTS VKDP activity was determined by measuring circulati...

In contrast to earlier assays, the prothrombin determination described here uses a two-step reaction: first, prothrombin is activated with human factor Xa, phospholipids, Ca++ and factor V; second, the amount of activated prothrombin is assayed by the proteolysis of added fibrinogen. The assay is dependent only on prothrombin, and independent of other components of thrombin generation. Carboxy-...

Serum des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (DCP) is commonly used to detect hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This review focuses on the clinical features of DCP-positive HCC and the molecular function of DCP in HCC. DCP-positive HCC demonstrates more aggressive clinicopathological features than DCP-negative HCC. Analysis of the biological effects of DCP revealed that DCP acts as a growth factor in both...