Role of Purinergic Receptor Expression and Function for Reduced Responsiveness to Adenosine Diphosphate in Washed Human Platelets.

BACKGROUND: Washing of platelets is an important procedure commonly used for experimental studies, e.g. in cardiovascular research. As a known phenomenon, responsiveness to adenosine diphosphate (ADP) is reduced in washed platelets, although underlying molecular mechanisms-potentially interfering with experimental results-have not been thoroughly studied. OBJECTIVES: Since ADP mediates its effects via three purinergic receptors P2Y1, P2X1 and P2Y12, their surface expression and function were investigated in washed platelets and, for comparison, in platelet-rich-plasma (PRP) at different time points for up to 2 hours after preparation. RESULTS: In contrast to PRP, flow cytometric analysis of surface expression in washed platelets revealed an increase of all receptors during the first 60 minutes after preparation followed by a significant reduction, which points to an initial preactivation of platelets and consecutive degeneration. The activity of the P2X1 receptor (measured by selectively induced calcium flux) was substantially maintained in both PRP and washed platelets. P2Y12 function (determined by flow cytometry as platelet reactivity index) was partially reduced after platelet washing compared to PRP, but remained stable in course of ongoing storage. However, the function of the P2Y1 receptor (measured by selectively induced calcium flux) continuously declined after preparation of washed platelets. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, decreasing ADP responsiveness in washed platelets is particularly caused by impaired activity of the P2Y1 receptor associated with disturbed calcium regulation, which has to be considered in the design of experimental studies addressing ADP mediated platelet function.

Analysis of particle strain in stirred bioreactors by drop breakage investigations.

Understanding of particle strain and drop breakage is relevant for various technical applications. To analyze it, single drop experiments in a breakage cell and evolving drop size distributions in an agitated system are studied. The mechanisms for particle strain and drop breakage are assumed to be comparable for the investigated turbulent flow regime. The agitation process is simulated using a population balance model. This model provides transient prediction capacities at different scales and can be used for scale-up/down projects. The number and the size distributions of daughter fragments for single drops have been studied. The results clearly support the assumption of binary breakage. The most common assumption of a Gaussian distribution for the daughter drop size distribution could not be supported. The evolution of a breakage-dominated toluene/water system was then simulated using different daughter drop size distributions from literature. The computational results were compared with experimental values. All simulations were able to predict the transient Sauter mean diameter excellently but varied strongly in the results on the shape of the distribution. In agreement with the experimental single drop results, the use of a bimodal or a very broad bell-shaped distribution of the daughter drops is proposed for the simulations. Although these results were obtained in a particular vessel for a specific phase system, it can be applied to simulate transient multiphase systems at different scales. We would expect that the general trends observed in this study are comparable to various applications in multiphase bioreactors.