The mechanism of morphologic change of human cultured umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) caused by fibrin was investigated. Ancrod, a thrombin-like enzyme, did not cause morphologic alteration of HUVEC by itself at concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 10 U/ml. However, when 0.02 U/ml of ancrod was added to cultured HUVEC monolayers in the presence of citrated plasma, it caused pronounced morphologic change of HUVEC after 6-10 h incubation period. Gly-Pro-Arg-Pro (4 mg/ml), an inhibitor of fibrin polymerization, prevented the morphologic alteration, indicating that the morphologic alteration was caused by the polymerized fibrin. The morphologic change of HUVEC caused by ancrod-generated fibrin was not observed in the presence of an intracellular calcium mobilization inhibitor TMB-8 (50 microM), and the morphologic alteration was also less pronounced with BAPTA(15 microM)-loaded HUVECs and HUVECs pretreated with EGTA (1.2 mM). Ancrod (in Medium 199) itself did not stimulate phosphoinositide breakdown of HUVEC. However, when ancrod was present in plasma, it caused an increase of [3H]IP1 of HUVECs preloaded with [3H]myoinositol. This IP1 increment was inhibited by Gly-Pro-Arg-Pro. The increase of IP1 was significantly inhibited by the pretreatment of monoclonal antibodies 23C6 and 7E3 directed against alpha v beta 3 integrin. Neomycin (1 mM) and pertussis toxin (100 ng/ml), but not aspirin or mepacrine, blocked this enhanced phosphoinositide breakdown. The morphologic change was also prevented by the monoclonal antibodies, 23C6 and 7E3. These results suggest that both intra- and extra-cellular calcium participate in the event of morphologic change of HUVEC caused by ancrod-generated fibrin, and the morphologic change is mediated, at least in part, by fibrin binding to integrin alpha v beta 3 on HUVECs, causing the subsequent activation of the endogenous G-protein coupled phospholipase C.