Title Author Date

Substitution of Argument Musgrave, Ian Apr 24, 2005

This sentence is unfinished. But from what we know of ascidian and
amphioxus clotting, as well of the haemocyte-only and haemocyte/coagulin
systems of simple and advanced non-chordate invertebrates, the sequence of
events suggested is plausible. Especially with the functional and
structural homology of thrombin and MASP, and thrombin/fibrinogen playing
dual and complementary roles in the complement and clotting systems. I
previously used the example of the calcium activated trypsin in amphioxus
as a model for the start of a simple clotting system (and thrombin is also
calcium activated). The MASP system already exists in ascidians, and can
easily be modified to provide a protoglobing system for amphioxus, which
can be elaborated in agnathans until we have the complete system in jawed
vertebrates (see especially the references in my original post which go
into some detail about how this may be accomplished).

Cheers! Ian

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