The kinetics of enzyme systems involving activation of zymogens (Q1209903)

The present paper proposes a model and a theoretical basis for kinetic studies of zymogen activation which is sufficiently general to include mechanisms processing one or more steps of zymogen activation in addition to possible steps of activation, reversible or irreversible inhibition, or inactivation. The explicit kinetic equations for the time courses of the various species and products involved are obtained and proved to be applicable not only to enzyme systems of zymogen activation but also to more complex zymogen activation cascades such as activation of the blood clotting factors, fibrinolysis, zymogen activations overlapping with reversible and/or irreversible inhibitions.