The subendothelium of the HMEC-1 cell line supports thrombus formation in the absence of von Willebrand factor and collagen types I, III and VI.

The macromolecular composition of the extracellular matrix (ECM) produced by the human microvascular endothelial cell line (HMEC-1) was determined by ELISA and its thrombogenicity was studied in blood perfusion assays. Results were compared with those obtained with the ECM produced by human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). The HMEC-1's ECM contains collagen type IV, fibronectin, laminin and thrombospondin, but no detectable levels of collagen types I, III and VI, or von Willebrand factor (vWF), whereas all these components were found in the ECM synthesized by HUVEC. HMEC-1's ECM was perfused with low-molecular-weight heparin-anticoagulated blood at two wall shear rates (650/s and 2,600/s), representative of moderate and high arterial wall shear rates, in parallel plate flow chambers for 5 min. This resulted in the formation of large platelet aggregates, compared to essentially a monolayer of adherent platelets on HUVEC's ECM. Interestingly, large thrombi were formed at 2,600/s when HMEC-1's ECM was perfused with the blood of a patient with severe type III von Willebrand disease lacking both plasma and platelet vWF, indicating that vWF was not absolutely required for thrombus formation on this matrix. Thrombin generated on the HMEC-1's ECM contributed importantly to the large platelet thrombi formed, shown by performing blood perfusion experiments in the presence of thrombin inhibitors. Our results indicate that 1) platelet adhesion and aggregate formation on a subendothelium may occur at a high shear rate (2600/s) without the participation of collagen types I, III and VI, and vWF; and 2) the HMEC-1 cell line may prove useful for in vitro studies of the thrombogenic properties of microvascular subendothelium which in most cases does not contain fibrillar collagens and vWF.