METHOD FOR DETERMINING VON WILLEBRAND FACTOR ACTIVITY IN THE ABSENCE OF RISTOCETIN AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING ADAMTS-13 PROTEASE

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an in vitro method for determining von Willebrand factor (VWF) activity in a sample in the absence of ristocetin and botrocetin, within the field of coagulation diagnosis.SOLUTION: There is provided a method for determining the von Willebrand factor (VWF)-cleaving activity of an ADAMTS-13 protease in a sample, comprising the steps of: a) mixing a sample which is suspected of containing the ADAMTS-13 protease with isolated VWF as a substrate to provide a reaction mix; b) incubating the reaction mix; and c) determining residual VWF activity in the reaction mix. The VWF substrate is a high molecular weight, multimeric VWF which includes VWF monomers having at least one amino acid sequence variation resulting in the VWF substrate being broken down by ADAMTS-13 in an accelerated manner compared to a VWF substrate that is high molecular weight, multimeric VWF composed of wild-type VWF monomers.