Platelet heterogeneity enhances blood clot volumetric contraction: An example of asynchrono-mechanical amplification.

ABSTRACT: Physiological processes such as blood clotting and wound healing as well as pathologies such as fibroses and musculoskeletal contractures, all involve biological materials composed of a contracting cellular population within a fibrous matrix, yet how the microscale interactions among the cells and the matrix lead to the resultant emergent behavior at the macroscale tissue level remains poorly understood. Platelets, the anucleate cell fragments that do not divide nor synthesize extracellular matrix, represent an ideal model to study such systems. During blood clot contraction, microscopic platelets actively pull fibers to shrink the macroscale clot to less than 10% of its initial volume. We discovered that platelets utilize a new emergent behavior, asynchrono-mechanical amplification, to en

SUBMITTER: Sun Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8184644 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature