Factor VIII

This picture was taken from the following source:
http://themedicalbiochemistrypage.org/images/coagulationcascade.jpg

Just today in biochemistry class, we were discussing proteolytic cleavage in the process of blood clotting. Hemophilia came into the discussion and our teacher explained to us how clotting factor VIII is to blame. A deficiency in factor VIII causes hemophilia A, which is the most common type of hemophilia. In class, we were focusing on the cascading pathway that causes blood clotting. Factor VIII is a simple accessory in this pathway, yet its deficiency causes a life-threatening disease. In the diagram above, this is especially apparent. My attention was, once again, brought to the fact that something always affects something else, at least in the body. In there is one deficiency, it is expressed in another pathway. This reminded me of different diseases that occur within the cardiovascular system, since this is what we were studying most recently in histology. The difference between an active and inactive enzyme can be the difference between a disease and "normality". The textbook describes "prothrombogenic agents" as the "agents that promote thrombi formation." These agents simply fail to function in hemophiliacs. It was nice to be able to find a link between histology and one of my other classes. The things we learn relate to one another, but it's nice to be able to identify that in such a direct way.


The information above was taken from the following source: Ross, Michael H., and Wojciech Pawlina. "Cardiovascular System." Histology: A Text and Atlas: With Correlated Cell and Molecular Biology. 6th ed. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Health, 2011. 409. Print.