Adhesion of platelets from the platelet-rich plasma (PRP) of patients with von Willebrand's disease (vWD) and healthy donors has been studied in a simple model system - wells of multiwell tissue culture plates coated with fibrillar calf skin collagen (CSC). This model is characterized by: (i) the presence of only one constituent of the vessel wall connective tissue matrix (collagen), (ii) the absence of surface-bound aggregates and thrombi, (iii) absence of overlapping of neighbouring spread platelets. A morphometric quantitation of adhesion by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been carried out. It allows to subdivide this process into three stages: 1) initial attachment of unspread platelets to the substrate, 2) platelet spreading on the substrate, and 3) attachment of unspread platelets to the upper surface of spread platelets. It was established that the PRP of vWD patients, compared to that of healthy donors, is characterized by a decreased total adhesion of platelets to a CSC-coated surface, which is manifested in the impairment of both the initial attachment and subsequent spreading of platelets. Addition of platelet-free plasma from healthy donors to the vWD PRP completely restores platelet spreading on collagen but little affects the initial attachment. These experiments performed on isolated collagen preparations provide further evidence for the initial attachment and spreading of platelets on collagenous constituents of the subendothelium being factor VIII/von Willebrand factor (FVIII/vWF)-dependent. In contrast to the adhesion on the collagen substrate, the adhesion of platelets from vWD PRP to a foreign surface, polystyrene plastic of uncoated wells, is the same as that of the normal PRP and, thus, FVIII/vWF-independent.