To cite this article: Dahm AEA, Sandset PM, Rosendaal FR. The association between protein S levels and anticoagulant activity of tissue factor pathway inhibitor type 1. J Thromb Haemost 2008; 6: 393-5.Protein S (PS) is a vitamin K-dependent coagulation inhibitor of which 40% circulates in a free form and 60% circulates bound to C4b-binding protein (C4BP). PS exerts its anticoagulant activity mainly by being a cofactor for activated protein C (APC) in the inactivation of factor (F) Va and FVIIIa [1].Tissue factor (TF) pathway inhibitor type 1 (TFPI) is the physiological inhibitor of the TF pathway of blood coagulation. Approximately 80% of circulating TFPI in blood is Cterminal truncated and bound to lipoproteins, while 20% is carrier free full-length TFPI [2]. The TFPI-mediated inhibition of the TF/FVIIa complex occurs in two steps. Firstly, TFPI binds and inhibits FXa. Secondly, the TFPI/FXa complex binds to the complex of TF and FVIIa to form an inactive quaternary TFPI/FXa/TF/FVIIa complex:The first step of this reaction is rate limiting [3], and it is much faster with full-length TFPI than with truncated TFPI [4,5]. Recently, Hackeng et al. showed in an in vitro model in the absence of APC that PS increases the reaction rate between full-length TFPI and FXa. Moreover, this increase was not observed for truncated TFPI [6]. Hence, PS enhances the inhibition of coagulation by full-length TFPI.We have recently reported a TFPI anticoagulant activity assay based on the ability of TFPI to inhibit clotting in a modified diluted prothrombin time assay. This assay measures the activity of full-length TFPI, but not of truncated TFPI [7]. We suggested that the assay discriminated between full-length and truncated TFPI in relation to differences in reaction kinetics with FXa. Based on the findings of Hackeng et al., we hypothesized that the anticoagulant activity of fulllength TFPI was associated with the concentration of PS in plasma, and that the concentration of PS would influence the risk for venous thrombosis (VT) associated with low TFPI anticoagulant activity and vice versa. Although the results by Hackeng et al. are primarily applicable to free PS and fulllength TFPI, they also found some anticoagulant effect of PS bound to C4BP. We therefore decided to investigate both free and bound PS.To test these hypotheses we used data collected in the Leiden Thrombophilia Study (LETS) that included free and total PS [8], TFPI free and total antigen, and TFPI anticoagulant activity [7]. LETS is a population-based case-control study of 474 cases with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and 474 healthy controls matched for sex and age, excluding individuals with cancer. The study has been described in detail previously [9]. The association between free PS and TFPI anticoagulant activity was studied in the 422 controls in whom both free PS and TFPI anticoagulant activity had been assayed. Correspondingly, the association between total PS and TFPI anticoagulant activity was studied in 436 controls. For the calculation of risk for DVT, u...