Adhesion of human blood platelets to glass polymer surfaces. II. Demonstration of the presence of a natural platelet adhesion inhibitor in plasma and serum.

Adhesiveness of washed platelets resuspended in citrated plasma, serum, or several different media has been investigated. A method specific for quanititation of adhesion was used. Platelets suspended in saline of Tyrode's solution were found to be highly adhesive to glass, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, or Cuprophane. This adhesiveness of platelets to test surfaces decreased by nearly 50% when plasma was the suspension medium. When the suspension medium was serum, the decrease in adhesion was nearly 75%. Cohn fraction V also decreased the adhesiveness of platelets significantly, but highly purfied albumin had only a small effect. Several pharmacologic agents decreased platelet adhesiveness when added to platelets suspended in plasma or serum, but had negligible effect on the adhesiveness of platelets suspended in artificial media devoid of proteins. Normal washed platelets, when suspended in citrated plasma obtained from an afibrinogenemic donor or in normal serum, showed a significant decrease in adhesion compared to the same platelets suspended in normal citrated plasma. Addition of fibrinogen to afibrinogenemic plasma or normal serum restored the adhesiveness of platelets to normal levels. Normal platelets resuspended in plasma obtained from a thrombasthenic donor exhibited normal adhesiveness. These observations suggested that while fibrinogen promotes platelet adhesion, plasma or serum possess also an adhesion-inhibiting activity.