Monday January 4, 2010
Trivia on Urokinase

Urokinase is a physiologic thrombolytic agent that is produced in renal parenchymal cells. Unlike streptokinase, urokinase directly cleaves plasminogen to produce plasmin. When purified from human urine, approximately 1500 L of urine are needed to yield enough urokinase to treat a single patient.

In plasma, urokinase has a half-life of approximately 15 minutes. Allergic reactions are rare, and the agent can be administered repeatedly without antigenic problems.

Urokinase is also commercially available in a form produced by tissue culture, and recombinant DNA techniques have been developed for urokinase production in E coli cultures.