Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
News and Views
Nature Medicine 8, 1082 - 1083 (2002)
doi:10.1038/nm1002-1082
Attacked from within, blood thins
Wadie F. Bahou1
- Departments of Medicine and Program in Genetics, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York, USA e-mail: wbahou@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
Abstract
Thrombin leads to blood clotting through activation of specialized G protein–coupled receptors. In mice, small peptides call pepducins inhibit thrombin receptors and prevent blood clotting (pages 1161–1165).
Blood clotting is controlled by a tightly regulated cascade of proteases and their cofactors that sequentially leads to generation of a gelatinous meshwork composed of a protein called fibrin. This coagulation cascade ensures the normal cessation of blood flow that occurs during physiologic processes such as menstruation, or during recovery from injury, and is termed hemostasis.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
|
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated NEWS AND VIEWS RESEARCH |
