Blood Platelet Surface Interactions on Fibrinogen Under Flow as Viewed With Fluorescent Video-Microscopy

The interaction of fluorescently labeled blood platelets with fibrinogen-coated glass was studied in Poiseuille flow at 3 wall shear rates, 40, 80 and 944 s⁻¹. Observations were made via video-microscopy at a distance of 0.5 cm from a tube’s entrance over a 1370 μm² portion of luminal area. The rates of arrival and detachment, and the net rate of adhesion of cells increased nonlinearly with flow rate. The fraction of arriving cells, first contacts, which adhered without subsequent movement and the fraction of arriving cells which adhered, moved to new positions and then remained adherent, were maximal at 80 s⁻¹. For platelets which adhere and then move to a number of new positions, the likelihood of permanent adhesion is greater than 85 percent. The adhesion process is one in which 40–60 percent of cells permanently adhere on first contact with an additional 30 percent adhering after several moves along the surface. Cells contacting where a platelet was previously adherent had a greater chance of adhering than they would on an unaltered fibrinogen surface. The efficiency of platelet adhesion is greater for second contacts than for first contacts on unaltered fibrinogen coated surface.