A novel inhibitor of blood coagulation has been isolated from the intima of bovine aorta. The inhibitor, vascular anticoagulant (VAC), has been purified to an active fraction that contains two Coomassie-blue-staining bands (Mr = 34,000 and Mr = 32,000, as judged by sodium dodecyl sulfate/polyacrylamide electrophoresis). Both bands are single-chain proteins, having no glycoprotein features. Furthermore, they do not contain any detectable 4-carboxyglutamic acid residues. Both proteins have an identical isoelectric pH of approximately 4.5. VAC binds in the presence of calcium ions to a bilayer consisting of 20% dioleoylglycerophosphoserine and 80% dioleoylglycerophosphocholine with a Kd = 6 nM. The binding is dependent on the calcium concentration: half-saturation of binding occurs at a calcium concentration of 0.8 mM. The binding is completely reversible with EDTA. Furthermore the phospholipid/VAC ratio at saturation was n = 112 and n = 32 mol/mol for 0.5 mM Ca2+ and 2 mM Ca2+, respectively. Binding does not occur between VAC and pure dioleoylglycerophosphocholine. In a system with purified coagulation factors VAC inhibits the activation of prothrombin by factor Xa and calcium only in the presence of negatively charged phospholipids. VAC decreases the Vmax and increases the Km of the factor-Xa-catalyzed prothrombin activation. Based on these results, we conclude that we have purified from bovine aortic intima an anticoagulant protein, which exerts its activity through a calcium-dependent binding to negatively charged phospholipids, and thus interferes with the assembly of prothrombinase on the phospholipid surface.