Unaltered prion protein cleavage in plasminogen-deficient mice

In normal brains and cultured cells, cellular prion protein (PrPC) is partially found as N-terminally truncated fragments, designated C1 and C2. The cleavage of recombinant PrP to a fragment corresponding to C1 can be mediated by the protease plasmin (Pln) in vitro, suggesting that plasmin might be