IS IT POSSIBLE TO IDENTIFY HUMAN PLATELETS IN VITRO AS BEING DESENSITIZED TO PLATELET ACTIVATING FACTOR (PAF-ACETHER,PAF) IN VIVO?
PAF is suggested to be of pathophysiological importance in a variety of diseases. Since platelets exhibit a reduced sensitivity to PAF after a contact with this agent, this behavior may be used as indicator of PAF released into the circulation. In extrinsic asthma, platelets show a diminished reaction to PAF after exposition of the patients to the antigen compared to their own platelets before exposition (Beer and von Felten, Adv. Inflamm. Res. 10:323,1986). We were therefore looking for a test system indicating directly whether platelets had been in contact with PAF.Preparation of PAF-desensitized platelets: Citrated PRP was placed in a cuvette of an aggregometer, and PAF was added in 10 portions at intervals of 10 sec (37oc, constant stirring) to a final concentration of 10 to 100 nM, depending on the individual sensitivity of each platelet preparation. Therby, only a minimal, completely reversible aggregation was registered without any release of serotonin (ST) or 3-thromboglobulin (BTG). Control platelets were pretreated with buffer instead of PAF. Both platelets preparations were kept at 37°C for 45 min. Whereas control platelets showed a secondary aggregation to PAF (5x conc. used for desensitization), PAF-pretreated piatelets were only reversibly aggregated.Sensitivity of PAF-desensitized and control platelets to other platelet agonists: No difference in aggregation, ST-or BTG-relea-se was observed after stimulation with several concentrations of ADP, collagen and arachidonate (p>0.05,n= 41).Binding of 3H-PAF to platelets: PAF-desensitized and control platelets were separated from plasma by filtration through sepharose CL-2B (Pharmacia) in hepes-buffered Tyrode’s solution. After incubation with 3H-PAF, platelets were washed on Whatman 934-AH filters (vacuum filtration). On desensitized and control platelets, we found 175±48 (mean±sd) and 231±70 3H-PAF molecules / platelet respectively after incubation with 5 nM ^h-PAF, 399±36 and 504±66 ^H-PAF molecules / platelet after incubation with 20 nM. In spite of a statistically significant reduction of PAF-binding after desensitization (p<0.01),the variability of PAF-binding between platelets of different individuals is too high to allow a discrimination of normal from PAF-desensitized platelets.