A capillary zone electrophoresis method to detect conformers and dimers of antithrombin in therapeutic preparations.

Antithrombin (AT) is a human plasma glycoprotein that possesses anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory properties. However, the native (active) form of AT is unstable and undergoes conformational changes, leading to latent, cleaved, and heterodimeric forms. The presence of these alternative forms mostly inactive can highly impact the quality and therapeutic activity of pharmaceutical AT preparations.