HUMAN VS DOG PLATELET-ADHESION TO CUPROPHANE UNDER CONTROLLED CONDITIONS OF WHOLE-BLOOD FLOW

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  • 1 January 1976
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 88  (3) , 368-374
Abstract
It is commonly assumed that a candidate biomaterial to which nonhuman (especially dog) platelets do not readily adhere is promising for human use. This assumption was tested in a lucite chamber in which Cuprophane membrane (Bemberg PT-150), comprising 1 of the chamber surfaces, is exposed to citrated or heparinized flowing dog or human blood for 10 or 20 min and flowing buffer for 1 min. Following exposure, membrane specimens were carefully removed, fixed in glutaraldehyde and mounted on a slide. Platelets at a particular axial location were counted by phase-contrast microscopy (625x). At a shear rate of 986 s-1 and at 10 min, platelets per mm2 (mean .+-. SE(N)) in citrate were 28,400 .+-. 6000 (6), dog; 18 .+-. 3.8 (4), human. Under the same conditions, platelets per mm2 in heparin were 32,600 .+-. 8400 (4), dog; 7.6 .+-. 1.0 (3), human. A qualitatively similar species difference was found in citrate at 1 other shear rate and at 1 other exposure time. Evaluations of candidate human biomaterials carried out with dog (and perhaps other nonhuman) blood should be interpreted with caution.