The interaction between antithrombin III (ATIII) and albumin-heparin conjugates covalently coupled onto carboxylated polystyrene beads either in buffer containing albumin or in plasma was studied using 14C-labeled ATIII. Binding isotherms of ATIII were modeled using a summation of two Langmuir equations. These equations describe the binding of ATIII to two different sets of binding sites, one with a high, the other with a low affinity of ATIII to these sites are 9 x 10(6) L/mol and 0.3 x 10(6) L/mol, respectively. The binding of ATIII to surface binding sites with a high affinity for ATIII was correlated with the presence of specific ATIII binding sites in the immobilized heparin. Binding of ATIII from albumin solutions to binding sites with a low affinity for ATIII was dominated by nonspecific binding of ATIII to the immobilized heparin. A third small fraction of the surface bound. ATIII is probably adsorbed to sites on the surface not covered with heparin. In the case of the binding of ATIII to the heparinized surface from plasma solutions, a fraction of initially adsorbed ATIII was desorbed by other plasma proteins. This desorption in combination with direct competition between ATIII and other plasma proteins resulted in lower ATIII surface concentrations using plasma as compared to the ATIII surface concentrations obtained using albumin solutions. The binding of ATIII to nonspecific binding sites was almost completely inhibited in the presence of plasma proteins. The amount of ATIII bound to immobilized heparin via specific ATIII binding sites was 30% lower in plasma solutions as compared to the specific binding of ATIII using albumin solutions. It is concluded that the accessibility of immobilized heparin for ATIII in plasma decreases by binding of heparin-binding proteins onto the immobilized heparin and/or adsorption of other plasma proteins on the heparinized surface.