Background: In peripheral arterial disease (PAD) atherosclerosis is disseminated and thrombosis risk is high. We have not only shown the platelets of PAD patients to by hyperreactive and aspirin resistant, but have recently verified them to be hypersensitive to heparin as well. In the present study we have begun to clarify the mechanisms underlying these regularly observed clinical findings.
Methods: Platelet function was tested with conventional, ADP-primed aggregation and with stagnation point flow adhesio-aggregometry (SPAA). SPAA permits real time, quantitative assessment of platelet adhesion and aggregation under biologically relevant flow conditions. The platelets from a female patient with congenital afibrinogenemia, were analyzed before and after intravenous fibrinogen substitution. In 14 PAD patients and 14 controls, platelet reactivity was assessed before and after incubation with the two platelet membrane glycoprotein (GP)-IIb/IIIa inhibitors Ro 43-8857 and 7E3. Lastly, experiments were performed before and after addition of plasma aliquots stemming from 4 PAD patients to platelet rich plasma and to solutions of gel-filtered platelets (GFP) stemming from 4 healthy volunteers. Before fibrinogen substitution, the platelets of the afibrinogenemic patient were unable to adhere in the SPAA-system and maximal ADP-primed aggregability was below 10%. After substitution, normal platelet adhesion was measured and primed aggregation increased three-fold. Mean baseline adhesion in the patient collective was twice that compared to controls (p<0.001). SPAA-measured, spontaneous aggregation was observed in ten patients and in none of the controls (p<0.001).
Results: Both SPAA-measured and primed aggregation were abolished at the lowest substrate concentrations (0.1 microM Ro 43-8857, 1 microg/ml 7E3). At these concentrations adhesion was reduced by 65% and 40% (respectively) in patients, and by 55% and 25% in controls. Total abolition of adhesion in both groups was seen with 0.5 microM Ro 43-8857 and 10 microg/ml 7E3. Platelet response to inhibitory agent was similar in patients and controls, as were the differences in dose-response between aggregation and adhesion. Upon addition of patient plasma to volunteer PRP, the platelets of all 4 healthy individuals aggregated spontaneously and the mean adhesivity in the group rose three-fold. The overall ability of the GFP to adhere when re-added to their own plasma was decreased, whereas, in the presence of patient plasma, adhesion increased significantly.
Conclusions: On the basis of these findings we conclude that: 1) SPAA measures and quantifies platelet interactions with both fluid-phase (aggregation) and immobilized (adhesion) fibrinogen, 2) these reactions are mediated by the GP, IIb/IIIa receptor complex 3) the binding affinity, metabolic pathways and signal transduction underlying platelet adhesion differ from those involved in aggregation (possibly reflecting their varying roles in hemostasis), 4) the functionally normal platelets of patients with PAD are primed in vivo by a circulating plasma constituent, which leads to enhanced recruitment of activated GP, IIb/IIIa onto the platelet surface and, thereby, to an overall increase in reactivity.