Fibrin (also called Factor Ia) is a fibrous, non-globular protein involved in the clotting of blood.
Hereditary abnormalities of fibrinogen (the gene is carried on chromosome 4) are both quantitative and qualitative in nature and include afibrinogenaemia, hypofibrinogenaemia, dysfibrinogenaemia, and hypodysfibrinogenemia.
Fibrin from various different animal sources is generally glycosylated with complex type biantennary asparagine-linked glycans.
Variety is found in the degree of core fucosylation and in the type of sialic acid and galactose linkage.
[5][6] Fibrin assembly facilitates intermolecular antiparallel C-terminal alignment of gamma-chain pairs, which are then covalently 'cross-linked' by factor XIII ('plasma protransglutaminase') or XIIIa to form 'gamma-dimers'.