Monocytes can be induced by lipopolysaccharide-triggered T lymphocytes to express functional factor VII/VIIa protease activity.

In the present study we demonstrate that human monocytes can be induced by the model stimulus, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), to produce and assemble on their surface functional Factor VII/VIIa. This protease was not induced in relatively purified monocytes alone following exposure to LPS; but was induced in the presence of Leu-3a positive helper/inducer T cells. The Factor VII/VIIa protease activity represented 35-40% of the potential initiating activity for the extrinsic coagulation pathway and was demonstrated using functional coagulation assays, as well as in amidolytic assays for the activation of Factor X. This activity of cell-bound Factor VII/VIIa appeared to involve a tight adduct of calcium. The identity of the Factor X-activating protease as Factor VII/VIIa was confirmed by the capacity of antibody specific for Factor VII/VIIa to neutralize the cell-bound protease. Further propagation of the extrinsic pathway following generation of Factor Xa required addition of exogenous Factor Va. These results expand the repertoire of proteases that have been identified with appropriately triggered cells of the monocyte/macrophage series, and suggest that initiation and propagation of the extrinsic coagulation protease network on induced monocytes involves not only expression of the initiating cofactor molecule, tissue factor, but also production of Factor VII and its organization into the molecular assembly. Thus, in the absence of exogenous Factor VII/VIIa a directly proteolytic effector cell can be generated. Further molecular assembly of the extrinsic pathway on the monocyte surface sequentially expands the proteolytic capacity of this response. The synthesis and assembly of the extrinsic activation complex by the monocyte and its derived progeny, the macrophage, provides a mechanism by which coagulation is initiated under T cell instruction at sites of immunologic responses.