In platelets exposed to chelating agents at 37°C and recalcified, aggregation to ADP, adrenaline, collagen and thrombin were either abolished or markedly reduced (1). This phenomenon has been suggested to be caused by disruption, by Ca2+ deprivation, of the fibrinogen receptor (glycoprotein lib Ilia complex) on the surface of the platelet (2). This effect was dependent on the exposure time of Ca2+ chelators and was reduced at lower temperatures. We have investigated the effect of exposure of human platelets to EGTA upon aggregation to a range of agonists at both 37 and 25°C. EGTA (5 mM) was incubated with citrated (12.9 mM) whole blood for either 0, 1, 5, 15 or 30 min. One minute following recalcification (5 mM CaCl2), full aggregation concentration-response curves were constructed to ADP and adrenaline (0.1 to 3 μM), PAF (3 to 100 nM), collagen (0.1 to 4 μg/ml) and U46619 (0.03 to 1 μM), using a platelet counting technique (3). At 25°C, EGTA produced little or no significant loss of sensitivity to any agonist. At 37°C marked rightward shifts of the ADP, adrenaline and PAF aggregation curves occurred which were related to the time of incubation with EGTA (e.g. ADP concentration ratios (CR) of 2.0 (0.8-4.8), 4.7 (2.1-10.7), › 186.6 (135.2-257.6) (95% confidence intervals n=4) obtained at 1, 5 and 15 min respectively). Following 30 min incubation aggregation to all three agonists was abolished (up to ADP 300 pM; adrenaline 100 μM; PAF 10 μM). In contrast, whilst collagen and U46619 concentration-effect curves were displaced to the right following 30 minutes exposure to EGTA (CR =13.6 (6.1-30.4) and 9.0 (4.3-18.7) respectively, n=4) full aggregation curves could still be established. Furthermore, a 60 min incubation with EGTA caused little further effect. Our findings suggest platelet agonists such as collagen and U46619, but not ADP, adrenaline and PAF, can evoke expression of a population of fibrinogen receptor sites involved in platelet aggregation that are inaccessible to EGTA.(1) Zucker, MB & Grant, RA (1978). Blood, 52, 505. (2)Shattil, SJ et al. (1985). Blood, 66, 92. (3) Lumley, P & Humphrey, PPA (1981). J. Pharm. Methods, 6, 153.