ASPIRINATED PLATELETS ARE HEMOSTATIC IN THROMBOCYTOPENIC RATS WITH NON-ASPIRINATED VESSEL WALLS - EVIDENCE FROM AN EXCHANGE-TRANSFUSION MODEL

  • 1 January 1980
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 56  (6) , 959-962
Abstract
The contrasting effects of aspirin on bleeding time (BT) might be related to the drug''s inhibitory activity on platelets and vascular prostaglandin I2 (PGI2). To test this, an exchange transfusion model in the rat was developed and the BT in animals whose platelets, but not vessels, had been exposed to aspirin was studied. Rats with severe experimental thrombocytopenia were exchange-transfused with blood from normocythemic rats pretreated with aspirin 6 h before. The platelet count was raised from 2 to .apprx. 70% of basal level and the BT returned to control values even though the platelets neither responded to arachidonic acid nor produced detectable amounts of malondialdehyde, and vascular PGI2 was not inhibited. Aspirinated platelets may be hemostatically active and the BT is not necessarily affected by unbalanced PG production in platelets and the vessel wall.