If the cut in the blood vessel is very small—indeed, many very small vascular holes develop throughout the body each day—the cut is often sealed by a platelet plug rather than by a blood clot. To understand this process, it is important that we first discuss the nature of platelets themselves.
Physical and Chemical Characteristics of Platelets
Platelets (also called thrombocytes) are minute discs 1 to 4 micrometers in diameter. They are formed in the bone marrow from megakaryocytes, which are extremely large hematopoietic cells in the marrow; the megakaryocytes fragment into the minute platelets either in the bone marrow or soon after entering the blood, especially as they squeeze through capillaries. The normal concentration of platelets in the blood is between 150,000 and 300,000 per microliter.
Platelets have many functional characteristics of whole cells, even though they do not have nuclei and cannot reproduce. In their cytoplasm are (1) actin and myosin molecules, which are contractile proteins similar to those found in muscle cells, and still another contractile protein, thrombosthenin, that can cause the platelets to contract; (2) residuals of both the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi apparatus that synthesize various enzymes and especially store large quantities of calcium ions; (3) mitochondria and enzyme systems that are capable of forming adenosine tri phosphate (ATP) and adenosine diphosphate (ADP); (4) enzyme systems that synthesize prostaglandins, which are local hormones that cause many vascular and other local tissue reactions; (5) an important protein called fibrin-stabilizing factor, which we discuss later in relation to blood coagulation; and (6) a growth factor that causes vascular endothelial cells, vascular smooth muscle cells, and fibroblasts to multiply and grow, thus causing cellular growth that eventually helps repair damaged vascular walls.
On the platelet cell membrane surface is a coat of glycoproteins that repulses adherence to normal endothelium and yet causes adherence to injured areas of the vessel wall, especially to injured endothelial cells and even more so to any exposed collagen from deep within the vessel wall. In addition, the platelet membrane contains large amounts of phospholipids that activate multiple stages in the blood-clotting process, as we discuss later.
Thus, the platelet is an active structure. It has a half-life in the blood of 8 to 12 days, so over several weeks its functional processes run out; it is then eliminated from the circulation mainly by the tissue macrophage system. More than one half of the platelets are removed by macrophages in the spleen, where the blood passes through a latticework of tight trabeculae.
Mechanism of the Platelet Plug
Platelet repair of vascular openings is based on several important functions of the platelet. When platelets come in contact with a damaged vascular surface, especially with collagen fibers in the vascular wall, the platelets rapidly change their own characteristics drastically. They begin to swell; they assume irregular forms with numerous irradiating pseudopods protruding from their sur faces; their contractile proteins contract forcefully and cause the release of granules that contain multiple active factors; they become sticky so that they adhere to collagen in the tissues and to a protein called von Willebrand factor that leaks into the traumatized tissue from the plasma; they secrete large quantities of ADP; and their enzymes form thromboxane A2. The ADP and thromboxane in turn act on nearby platelets to activate them as well, and the stickiness of these additional platelets causes them to adhere to the original activated platelets.
Therefore, at the site of a puncture in a blood vessel wall, the damaged vascular wall activates successively increasing numbers of platelets that attract more and more additional platelets, thus forming a platelet plug. This plug is loose at first, but it is usually successful in blocking blood loss if the vascular opening is small. Then, during the subsequent process of blood coagulation, fibrin threads form. These threads attach tightly to the platelets, thus constructing an unyielding plug.
Importance of the Platelet Mechanism for Closing Vascular Holes. The platelet-plugging mechanism is extremely important for closing minute ruptures in very small blood vessels that occur many thousands of times daily. Indeed, multiple small holes through the endothelial cells themselves are often closed by platelets actually fusing with the endothelial cells to form additional endothelial cell membrane. Literally thousands of small hemorrhagic areas develop each day under the skin and throughout the internal tissues of a person who has few blood platelets. This phenomenon does not occur in persons with normal numbers of platelets.
