Relationship Between Mepacrine-Labelled Dense Body Number, Platelet Capacity to Accumulate 14C-5-HT and Platelet Density in the Bernard-Soulier and Hermansky-Pudlak Syndromes

1979 ◽  
Vol 42 (02) ◽  
pp. 694-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Rendu ◽  
A T Nurden ◽  
M Lebret ◽  
J P Caen

SummaryWe have used the mepacrine-labelling procedure to measure the dense body (serotonin storage organelle) content of the platelets of 2 hereditary disorders where abnormalities in dense body number were suspected. The platelets were incubated with mepacrine and examined by fluorescence microscopy. A mean number of 5.4 ± 0.8 (SD) dense bodies per platelet was calculated from the data obtained using platelets isolated from 40 normal human subjects. In contrast the platelets of 2 patients with the Bernard-Soulier syndrome contained an average of 14 and 17 labelled granules. This increase was associated with a much greater capacity of the platelets to accumulate 14C-5-HT. The opposite result was obtained using the platelets from 2 patients with the Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome which contained few granules labelled by mepacrine and took up less 14C-5-HT than normal human platelets. Centrifugation of the patients’ platelets on discontinuous sucrose gradients showed that the platelets of the 2 Bemard-Soulier patients were much denser than normal whereas a high proportion of low density platelets was observed in the Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome. These results further define the platelet abnormalities in the two syndromes and suggest that dense body number may be one of the factors governing platelet density.

1977 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Rendu ◽  
M. Lebret ◽  
J.P. Caen

Dense bodies are the storage site of 5-HT and their number might correlate with the different platelet populations. Mepacrine, a basic fluorescent dye, is a suitable tool for studying abnormalities in platelet 5-HT storage.The content of platelet DB can be readily estimated by examination under fluorescence microscope of platelets charged with mepacrine. In human platelets, a mean number of 6.3 DB/ platelet was found. This estimation has been performed in platelets of different densities separated on sucrose gradient : heavy platelets, in which 5-HT uptake is strongly inhibited by reserpine, had a mean number of 7 DB/platelet and none was empty of DB ; light platelets which are less active in regard to 5-HT and insensitive to reserpine, had less than 3 DB/platelet and most of them had a cytoplasmatic fluorescence. Thus the proportion of light and heavy platelets can be directly established by staining platelets with mepacrine.In view of this, platelets of two patients with an abnormal density distribution were studied for 5-HT and charged with mepacrine. The first presented an Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (HPS), an increased proportion, of light platelets, a low 5-HT uptake insensitive to reserpine and a great reduction of mepacrine-stained DB. The other patient with a Bernard-Soulier syndrome had only heavy platelets ; 5-HT uptake in these large platelets was markedly increased and all platelets had more than 20 DB stained with mepacrine.These results confirm that there is a good relationship between platelet density and number of dense bodies.


1979 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
R D Allen ◽  
L R Zacharski ◽  
S T Widirstky ◽  
R Rosenstein ◽  
L M Zaitlin ◽  
...  

Blood platelets from 10 normal human subjects have been examined with a sensitive differential interference contrast (DIC) microscope. The entire transformation process during adhesion to glass is clearly visible and has been recorded cinematographically, including the disk to sphere change of shape, the formation of sessile protuberances, the extension and retraction of pseudopodia, and the spreading, ruffling, and occasional regression of the hyalomere. The exocytosis of intact dense bodies can be observed either by DIC microscopy, or by epifluorescence microscopy in platelets stained with mepacrine. Details of fluorescent flashes indicate that the dense bodies usually release their contents extracellularly, may do so intracytoplasmically under the influence of strong, short wavelength light on some preparations of mepacrine-stained platelets. The release of one or more dense bodies leaves a crater of variable size on the upper surface of the granulomere. Such craters represent the surface component of the open canalicular system and their formation and disappearance can be directly observed. Because these techniques permit quantitation of several parameters of motility which are not readily observable by other techniques, it is suggested that high extinction DIC microscope examination may become a rapid and useful method of studying congenital and acquired platelet disorders. Many features of platelet transformation have been confirmed and extended by scanning electron micrographs. These can in turn be interpreted by reference to time-lapse films of living platelets.


Author(s):  
S.W. Hui ◽  
J.L. Costa ◽  
M.A. Smith ◽  
C.M. Strozewski

Dense bodies, electron-dense granules are believed to be storage sites for large pools of platelet serotonin, pyrophosphate, adenine nucleotides, and calcium. In order to prove that dense bodies exist as such in living platelets, we examined hydrated human platelets in the electron microscope, utilizing the differentially pumped hydration chamber.Human platelets were resuspended in the sodium chloride-Tris-citrate buffer with 0.35% bovine serum albumin, and were allowed to settle on carbon-coated grids covered with a thin film of liquid. Specimens were viewed and photographed at 100 kV in a Siemens 1A electron microscope equipped with an environmental chamber. The beam dose per micrograph was 5 x 10-5 coulombs/cm2. Although details of some platelets were obscured by a thick film of water, dense bodies were clearly visible in a large proportion of the platelets photographed (Figure 1). The distribution of platelets by dense-body content was similar to that described previously for air-dried whole mounts.


1977 ◽  
Vol 25 (9) ◽  
pp. 1079-1086 ◽  
Author(s):  
J L Costa ◽  
Y Tanaka ◽  
K Pettigrew ◽  
R J Cushing

A variety of electronmicroscope techniques have been used to examine how the air-drying process may affect the dense bodies in whole mounts of platelets. (a) Selected-area-diffraction and electron microprobe studies suggest that the air-drying process can result in the formation of crystalline precipitates of sodium chloride on grid films and platelets. However, no crystals were detected in the calcium-and-phosphorus-containing matrix of dense bodies. (b) Tilting studies show that dense bodies in human platelets are spherical or ellipsoidal in shape. Dense bodies in rabbit platelets, in contrast, appear flattened in a horizontal plane. (c) Human-platelet dense bodies probed with a small (20 nm diameter) spot vary widely in their peak/background ratios for calcium and phosphorus-a finding that suggests that the two elements may not be evenly distributed throughout the dense-body matrix. Nevertheless, when dense bodies are probed with a larger (200 nm diameter) spot, they do not appear to differ appreciably among themselves in their calcium or phosphorus content. The data suggest that with human platelets, air drying may be a preparative procedure which permits comparison by microprobe techniques of dense-body matrix content in platelet populations.


1994 ◽  
Vol 71 (01) ◽  
pp. 091-094 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Cattaneo ◽  
B Akkawat ◽  
R L Kinlough-Rathbone ◽  
M A Packham ◽  
C Cimminiello ◽  
...  

SummaryNormal human platelets aggregated by thrombin undergo the release reaction and are not readily deaggregated by the combination of inhibitors hirudin, prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) and chymotrypsin. Released adenosine diphosphate (ADP) plays an important role in the stabilization of thrombin-induced human platelet aggregates. Since ticlopidine inhibits the platelet responses to ADP, we studied thrombin-induced aggregation and deaggregation of 14C-serotonin-labeled platelets from 12 patients with cardiovascular disease before and 7 days after the oral administration of ticlopidine, 250 mg b.i.d. Before and after ticlopidine, platelets stimulated with 1 U/ml thrombin aggregated, released about 80–90% 14C-serotinin and did not deaggregate spontaneously within 5 min from stimulation. Before ticlopidine, hirudin (5× the activity of thrombin) and PGE1 (10 μmol/1) plus chymotrypsin (10 U/ml) or plasmin (0.06 U/ml), added at the peak of platelet aggregation, caused slight or no platelet deaggregation. After ticlopidine, the extent of platelet deaggregation caused by the same inhibitors was significantly greater than before ticlopidine. The addition of ADP (10 μmol/1) to platelet suspensions 5 s after thrombin did not prevent the deaggregation of ticlopidine-treated platelets. Thus, ticlopidine facilitates the deaggregation of thrombin-induced human platelet aggregates, most probably because it inhibits the effects of ADP on platelets.


1988 ◽  
Vol 59 (01) ◽  
pp. 029-033 ◽  
Author(s):  
K G Chamberlain ◽  
D G Penington

SummaryNormal human platelets have been separated according to density on continuous Percoll gradients and the platelet distribution divided into five fractions containing approximately equal numbers of platelets. The mean volumes and protein contents of the platelets in each fraction were found to correlate positively with density while the protein concentration did not differ significantly between the fractions. Four mitochondrial enzymes (monoamine oxidase, glutamate dehydrogenase, cytochrome oxidase and NADP-dependent isocitrate dehydrogenase) were assayed and their activities per unit volume were found to increase in a very similar monotonie fashion with platelet density. When MAO and GDH were assayed on the same set of density fractions the correlation between the two activities was very high (r = 0.94–1.00, p <0.001) and a similar close correlation was found between MAO and ICDH. The results support the hypothesis that high density platelets either have a higher concentration of mitochondria or have larger mitochondria than low density platelets.


1969 ◽  
Vol 21 (02) ◽  
pp. 373-379
Author(s):  
H Linker ◽  
H Reuter

SummaryThe spreading of human platelets requires the presence of ADP as do other platelet functions. In the plasma of patients with a failure of release of ADP from the platelets the also decreased ability to spread can be normalized by exogenous ADP. AMP and ATP inhibit the spreading of platelets.


1963 ◽  
Vol 10 (02) ◽  
pp. 400-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. A Amundson ◽  
L. O Pilgeram

SummaryEnovid (5 mg norethynodrel and 0.075 mg ethynylestradiol-3-methyl ether) therapy in young normal human subjects causes an increase in plasma fibrinogen of 32.4% (P >C 0.001). Consideration of this effect together with other effects of Enovid on the activity of specific blood coagulatory factors suggests that the steroids are exerting their effect at a specific site of the blood coagulation and/or fibrinolytic system. The broad spectrum of changes which are induced by the steroids may be attributed to a combination of a chain reaction and feed-back control.


1973 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshikatsu Nakai ◽  
Hiroo Imura ◽  
Teruya Yoshimi ◽  
Shigeru Matsukura

ABSTRACT In order to determine if an adrenergic mechanism is involved in the secretion of corticotrophin (ACTH), the effect of adrenergic-blocking or -stimulating agent on plasma ACTH, cortisol and glucose levels was studied in normal human subjects. The intravenous infusion of methoxamine, an alpha adrenergic-stimulating agent, caused a rise in plasma ACTH and cortisol. This increase in plasma ACTH and cortisol was significantly inhibited by the simultaneous administration of phentolamine, an alpha adrenergic-blocking agent, in combination with methoxamine. The intravenous infusion of propranolol, a beta adrenergic-blocking agent, caused no significant change in plasma ACTH and cortisol, although it enhanced the plasma ACTH response to insulin-induced hypoglycaemia. On the other hand, alpha adrenergicblockade by intravenous infusion of phentolamine significantly suppressed the plasma ACTH response to insulin-induced hypoglycaemia. These studies suggest a stimulatory effect of alpha receptors and a possible inhibitory effect of beta receptors on ACTH secretion in man.


1996 ◽  
Vol 351 (1346) ◽  
pp. 1455-1462 ◽  

The lateral frontal cortex is involved in various aspects of executive processing within short- and long-term memory. It is argued that the different parts of the lateral frontal cortex make distinct contributions to memory that differ in terms of the level of executive processing that is carried out in interaction with posterior cortical systems. According to this hypothesis, the mid-dorsolateral frontal cortex (areas 46 and 9) is a specialized system for the monitoring and manipulation of information within working memory, whereas the mid-ventrolateral frontal cortex (areas 47/12 and 45) is involved in the active retrieval of information from the posterior cortical association areas. Data are presented which support this two-level hypothesis that posits two distinct levels of interaction of the lateral frontal cortex with posterior cortical association areas. Functional activation studies with normal human subjects have demonstrated specific activity within the mid-dorsolateral region of the frontal cortex during the performance of tasks requiring monitoring of self-generated and externally generated sequences of responses. In the monkey, lesions restricted to this region of the frontal cortex yield a severe impairment in performance of the above tasks, this impairment appearing against a background of normal performance on several basic mnemonic tasks. By contrast, a more severe impairment follows damage to the mid-ventrolateral frontal region and functional activation studies have demonstrated specific changes in activity in this region in relation to the active retrieval of information from memory.


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