Blood vessel injury was found to release intracellular pools of protein
D-aspartyl/L-isoaspartyl carboxyl methyltransferase (PIMT) into the extracellular
milieu, where it became trapped. Trapped PIMT was able to utilize radiolabeled
S-adenosyl-L-methionine (AdoMet) introduced into the circulation to methylate
blood vessel proteins containing altered aspartyl residues specifically at the site
of...