Structural analyses of fibrinogen amyloid fibrils

Abstract

Hereditary fibrinogen amyloidosis is characterized by deposition of amyloid fibrils in renal glomeruli. The subunit protein of the amyloid fibrils is a proteolytic fragment of the fibrinogen Aα-chain. To investigate the structure of fibrinogen amyloid, fibrils were extracted from the tissues of a patient and studied by X-ray fiber diffraction and electron microscopy. We have carried out a full structural characterization of amyloid fibrils taken from disease tissue. These studies revealed that ex vivo fibrinogen amyloid fibrils have a cross-β structure similar to other chemical types of amyloid fibrils.

Keywords:

• Fibrinogen
• amyloid
• protein structure
• fiber diffraction
• electron microscopy

Abbreviations
HRA	=	hereditary renal amyloidosis

Abbreviations
HRA	=	hereditary renal amyloidosis