Incubation of human platelet-rich plasma (PRP) or washed platelets with merthiolate (MT; sodium ethylmercurithiosalicylate; an inhibitor of lysophosphatide: arachidonoyl transferase) leads to irreversible platelet aggregation which is parallelled by an increase in thromboxane A2 synthesis. MT-induced aggregation is preceded by a pronounced lag-period (0.5-10 min). Duration of the latter is inversely related to the concentration of MT ([MT]). Platelet responses to MT are similar to those triggered by arachidonate (AA) in that the relationships of the aggregation rates both to [MT] and [AA] are threshold and exhibit characteristic super-high values of the apparent Hill coefficients (h > 30). A typical MT-induced response can be subdivided in two sequential phases: i) cyclooxygenase-independent slow aggregation, and ii) indomethacin-abrogated rapid aggregation. MT-induced responses are blocked by PGE1 or ajoene (which inhibits binding of fibrinogen to its cell surface receptor, GPIIb/IIIa). The obtained data are interpreted both quantitatively and qualitatively in terms of a model assuming the existence of: i) a relationship between the rate of MT-inhibitable AA incorporation into phospholipids and the concentration of intracellular free AA, [AA]i; ii) a certain threshold value of [AA]i essential for triggering the second phase of the aggregation.