BACKGROUND Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is one of the leading manifestations of coronary heart disease in early middle age. Platelet glycoprotein (GP) Ib-IX-V receptor complexes play a key role in the initial adhesion of platelets to collagen during the formation of a coronary thrombus. The HPA-2 (Thr145 Met) and VNTR polymorphisms of the gene for GP Ibalpha have been studied previously in hospit...

Chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (chronic ITP) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by bleeding tendency and the presence of auto-antibody to platelets. Quantitative analysis of the level of anti-platelet antibodies and platelet associated antibodies is now possible. Furthermore, recent immunological techniques have enabled us to detect target platelet antigens in chronic ITP. In ...

The human endoglycosidase heparanase (hpa) degrades heparan-sulfate proteoglycans, which constitute prominent components of basement membranes and extracellular matrix. Due to the critical function of hpa in cancer cell invasion and metastasis, we have analyzed the expression of hpa in human primary and metastatic pancreatic cancer as well as in the normal pancreas and in chronic pancreatic inf...

BACKGROUND There are 346 serologically defined red blood cell (RBC) antigens and 33 serologically defined platelet (PLT) antigens, most of which have known genetic changes in 45 RBC or six PLT genes that correlate with antigen expression. Polymorphic sites associated with antigen expression in the primary literature and reference databases are annotated according to nucleotide positions in cDNA...

1 Feusner JH, Slichter SJ, Harker LA. Mechanisms of thrombocytopenia in varicella. Am J Hematol 1979;7: 255-64. 2 Espinoza G, Kuhn C, Viral infection of megakaryocytes in varicella with purpura. Am J Clin Pathol 1974;61:203-8. 3 Winiarski J. IgG and IgM antibodies to platelet membrane glycoprotein antigens in acute childhood idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. BrJ Haematol 1989;73:88-92. 4 Win...

Background: The short life time of human platelet units has led to a chronic shortage of fresh platelets in blood transfusion centers. Many approaches have been investigated experimentally to produce new hemostatically active platelet products that are capable of long term storage. Infusible platelet membrane (IPM) prepared from fresh or outdated human platelets have been developed as an altern...

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis maintains basal and stress-related homeostasis in vertebrates. Skin expresses all elements of the HPA axis including corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), proopiomelanocortin (POMC), ACTH, β-endorphin (β-END) with corresponding receptors, the glucocorticoidogenic pathway, and the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). To test the hypothesis that cutaneous r...

Chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a syndrome of destructive thrombocytopenia due to autoantibodies against platelet-associated antigens. These antigens are most commonly located on the platelet glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa complex. In the present studies, we show that many platelet-associated anti-GPIIb/IIIa autoantibodies from chronic ITP patients depend on conformationally intact...