Shear Rate - what's it got to do with platelet adhesion?
It's estimated that 1 in every 1000 people in the UK are affected by thrombosis each year. In the US, this figure is 1-2 people in every 1000, or up to 900,000 people per year, [1]. When left untreated, thrombosis can be life threatening. There would be no thrombosis without platelet adhesion, and that’s exactly why study into the area continues to be a primary focus in blood sciences. Advancements in understanding platelet adhesion mechanisms have paved the way for cutting-edge thrombosis treatments. The continued study of platelet adhesion and aggregation is paramount to advancing thrombosis treatment, and biochips like Cellix’s Vena8 Fluoro+ play a critical role in these developments.
To understand how these biochips work, we first have to understand the underlying mechanisms at play in thrombosis. Let's take a look.