The concentrations of the three major inhibitors of thrombin (IIa) differ significantly in adult and infant plasma. The extent to which these differences contribute to the rates and profiles of IIa inhibition in infant and adult plasma is unknown. We determined this by adding 2 NIH U/mL of I-human α-IIa to anequal volume of defibrinated plasma for 30s at 37°C. After SDS�PAGE and autoradiography, free Ila and complexes of IIa with antithrombin III (IIa-ATIII), heparin cofactor II (IIa-HCII) and α2-macroglobulin (αa-α2M) were quantitated in 3 types of pooled plasmas: cord; 6 month old infant and adult. Thrombin was inhibited more slowly incord plasma than in adult plasma (p‹0.001). in addition, while ATIII was the major inhibitor of Ila in adult plasma, ouM was equally as important as ATI 11 in cord and infant plasmas (p‹0.001). When cord plasma was supplemented with purified ATIII, the extents and profile of Ila inhibition by cord and adult plasmas were indistinguishable. The addition of heparin (0.2U/mL) accelerated the inhibition of Ila by all 3 plasmas, with ATIII the predominant inhibitor. Thus, 83% of the inactive Ila was bound to ATIII in adult plasma, 77% in each of cord and 6 month old infant plasmas. However, significantly more Ila was inactivated by adult plasma than the other two plasmas. These results suggest that cord plasmas are intrinsically less able to inactivate Ila than adult plasma. While the overall ability of the plasma of 6 month old infants to inactive Ila is comparable to adult plasma, the profile of inhibition of Ila in the former, both in the presence and absence of heparin, is more closely related to neonatal than adult plasma, likely reflecting high αM levels.