1. Haemostasis and thrombosis Flashcards
The body achieve haemostasis by balancing pro-coagulant and anti-coagulant factors. What are the PRO-coagulant factors?
Primary haemostasis: platelets, endothelium, vWF. Coagulation cascade.
The body achieve haemostasis by balancing pro-coagulant and anti-coagulant factors. What are the ANTI-coagulant factors?
Fibrinolysis. Natural inhibitors of thrombosis: anti-thrombins, protein C/S, tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI)
What three responses does vessel injury stimulate?
- Vasoconstriction - in order to minimise blood loss.
- Platelet activation - forms the primary haemostatic plug.
- Activation of the coagulation cascade
Coordinated haemostasis - what are the components of blood clot formation?
Vascular endothelium; platelets; coagulation proteins; white blood cells
What is the endothelium composed of?***
Endothelial cells, basement membrane, smooth muscles, collagen, elastin, glycosaminoglycans???
What are the functions of the endothelium?
Synthesis of PGI2, vWF, plasminogen activators, thrombomodulin. Maintains a barrier between blood and procoagulant subendothelial structures.
What happens as a result of endothelial damage?
Endothelial damage will expose those pro-coagulant substances which then triggers a haemostatic response.
What do endothelial cells also produce?
Prostaglandins, vWD, plasminogen activators (important for activating fibrinolysis), thrombomodulin
What does the exposure of subendothelial pro-coagulant factors lead to?
Platelet aggregation at the site of damage
Explain how platelets are produced?
Produced in the bone marrow and originate from megakaryocytes.
- Stem cell precursors (2n) undergo nuclear replication to form megakaryocytes and become multinucleate.
- Maturation with granulation occurs.
- The megakaryocytes enter circulation.
- Each megakaryocyte produces ~4000 platelets.
- Lifespan ~10 days, 1/3 stored in spleen.
What is the relevance of the lifespan of platelets?
NOTE: this is significant because once anti-platelet drugs halt platelet activity, its effect will last for 10 days.
Clinical relevance: if someone on aspirin needs to have surgery, they need to stop aspirin 7-10 days before surgery.
How is the production of platelets regulated?
By a range of thrombopoietic factors (e.g. thrombopoietin, IL-6, IL-12). These can be given therapeutically to stimulate platelet production.
What are glycoproteins on platelets?
Glycoproteins are cell surface proteins via which platelets can interact with the endothelium, vWF and other platelets
Why do platelets have dense granules?
Dense granules contain energy stores (in the form of ATP and ADP)
What is in the dense granules of platelets?
ADP, ATP, serotonin, Ca 2+
What does the presence of open cannalicular system, microtubules and actomyosin mean?
Platelets are capable of massively expanding their surface area
How do platelets adhere to the exposed sub-endothelial structures, directly and indirectly?
DIRECTLY - through GlpIa. INDIRECTLY - by binding to vWF via GlpIb (this is the MORE IMPORTANT route).
What is the adhesion of platelets to the exposed subendothelial structures followed by?
It is followed by release of various mediators such as ADP and thromboxane A2
What do ADP and thromboxane A2 promote?
Platelet aggregation
How do platelets attach to each other? And what attaches to it?
Platelets attach to each other via GlpIIb/IIIa (aka fibrinogen receptor). Fibrinogen also binds to this receptor.
Aspirin reversibly inhibits COX, true or false?
False, aspirin irreversibly inhibits COX
NSAIDs are different from aspirin because they reversibly block COX, true or false?
True
ADP receptors also important for platelet aggregation. What are some examples of inhibitors?
Clopidogrel, ticagrelor
Which pathway mainly occurs in vitro during clotting studies?
intrinsic pathway
Is the intrinsic or extrinsic pathway more important in the body?
Extrinsic
What is the rate limiting step for fibrin formtion?
Factor Xa
What is the coagulation cascade triggered by?
The pathway is triggered by trace amounts of thrombin (which is formed following the activation of the platelet plug)
What are the effects of thrombin?
Activates fibrinogen, activates platelets, activates pro-cofactors (Factor 5 and Factor 8), activates zymogens (Factor 7, 11 and 13).
These will all link together to form a prothrombinase complex which results in the activation of prothrombin to thrombin.
What is the most important step of the coagulation cascade?
Generation of THROMBIN
What does thrombin catalyse in the final step of the coagulation cascade?
Thrombin will catalyse the breakdown of fibrinogen to FIBRIN which is the final step in the coagulation cascade
Describe the initiation phase of the coagulation cascade:
- Damage to the endothelial results in the exposure of Tissue Factor which binds to Factor 7, thereby activating it to Factor 7a
- The tissue factor/factor 7a complex will result in activation of Factor 9 and Factor 10
- Factor 10a binds to Factor 5a which results in the FIRST STEP OF THE COAGULATION CASCADE
What can people with Factor V Leiden not do?
NOTE: people with Factor V Leiden will not be able to bind their Factor 5a to Factor 10a
Describe the amplification phase of the clotting cascade:
- The activated factors 10 + 5 will result in the formation of a small amount of thrombin.
- Once the thrombin has been generated, it will activate platelets.
- The thrombin will also activate Factor 11 which will activate Factor 9
- Thrombin will also activate Factor 8 and recruit more Factor 5a
- Factors 5a, 8a and 9a will bind to the activated platelet which then goes on to perform the last phase of the clotting cascade
Describe the propagation phase of the clotting cascade:
- The activate platelet with factors 5, 8 and 9 will recruit Factor 10a
- This will then result in the generation of large amounts of thrombin (THROMBIN BURST)
- The high levels of thrombin will convert fibrinogen to FIBRIN
- This enables the formation of a stable fibrin clot
Why is the prothrombinase complex important?
The formation of thrombin is influenced by the presence or absence of the above component. If all the components are present, you will be able to activate prothrombin at 300,000 times the rate of Factor 10a alone
Which factors are vitamin K dependent?
2, 7, 9, 10
Where are vitamin K dependent factors produced?
In the liver
How can we activate factors 2, 7, 9 and 10?
To biologically activate these factors, vitamin K is required as a co-enzyme for the gamma-carboxylation of the clotting factors
What can reduce your vitamin K absorption?
Bacteria are important for the production of vitamin K, so taking antibiotics and harming your gut flora can reduce your vitamin K absorption.
Similarly, vitamin K is fat soluble so you need bile to be able to absorb vitamin K (if you have an obstruction of the biliary tree, it can cause vitamin K deficiency)
What is the most common cause of vitamin K deficiency?
Warfarin
What process causes blood clot removal?
Fibrinolysis
What is tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) produced by and what does it do?
Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is produced by the endothelium and it converts plasminogen to plasmin
What is the clinical relevance of tPA?
tPA is sometimes given in stroke, MI and peripheral vascular disease
Apart from tPA what else activates plasminogen to plasmin?
Urokinase
What does plasmin break down fibrin into?
Fibrin degradation products (FDP)
What are tPA and urokinase inhibited by?
Plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 & 2.
What is plasmin inhibited by?
Alpha-2 antiplasmin and alpha-2 microglobulin
What does Thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibit?
Fibrin breakdown
What are three physiological anticoagulants?
Antithrombins, protein C and protein S, tissue factor pathway inhibitor
How do antithrombins work?
Antithrombins will bind to thrombin on a 1:1 ratio and it will then be excreted in the urine. There are FIVE types of antithrombin but the most active is antithrombin-III
What is the most thrombogenic condition?
The lack or deficiency of antithrombin is the MOST THROMBOGENIC condition
What is the clinical relevance of antithrombin?
Clinical Relevance: heparin augments the effect of antithrombin-III
What do protein C and protein S do?
In order to stop thrombin generation, activated Factors 5 and 8 need to be in. These factors are inactivated through the protein C and protein S pathway
What activates thrombomodulin (transmembrane receptor)?
The trace amounts of thrombin generated at the start of the cascade will activate thrombomodulin (transmembrane receptor)
What does activation of thrombomodulin do?
Activation of thrombomodulin will open up the receptor for thrombomodulin to bind to Protein C through endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR)
What do you call protein C which is bound to thrombomodulin through the endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR)?
Activated protein C (APC)
In the presence of what does protein C fully activate?*
Protein S (acting as a non-enzymatic co-factor)
What does the fully activated protein C do?
It will inactivate factor 5a and factor 8a
In which condition do you have activated protein C resistance?
Factor V Leiden
What does activated protein C resistance in factor V Leiden mean?
This means that the factor 5a in people with Factor V Leiden, will be resistant to breakdown by activated protein C. This results in a prothrombotic state
What are the two causes of activated protein C resistance?
Mutated Factor 5 (e.g. factor V leiden), or high levels of Factors 8
What step of the coagulation cascade does tissue factor pathway inhibitor target?
The first step of the coagulation cascade (initiation phase)
What factor is released in the first step of the coagulation cascade?
Tissue factor
As soon as the coagulation cascade is initiated and tissue factor is released, tissue factor pathway inhibitor is activated to neutralise what?
TF-factor 7a complex
The TF-factor 7a complex is NOT needed for very long - what is it only needed to activate?
Factor 10 and factor 9
The TF-factor 7a complex is NOT needed for very long, what is it neutralised by?
Tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI)