Platelet Fatty Acid Composition and Adenosine Diphosphate-Induced Platelet Aggregation

Abstract

1) The fatty acid composition (16:0, 18:0, 18:1, 18:2, 20:4 in wt%) of platelet total lipids and platelet aggregation (PAG) in citrated PRP induced by ADP (1 and 0.1mM) were studied in 20 normal subjects. PAG was expressed as percent aggregation measured by light transmission method following aggregation to ADP such as maximum, at 1min. and 3min. after the addition of ADP. The results of Student's t test of the correlation coefficients between PAG and individual fatty acid concentration (wt%) revealed that only those of linoleic acid (18:2) were significant (0.05<p<0.1).2) The effect of ADP-induced aggregation on the platelet fatty acid composition was studied as follows. PRP was divided into two parts and usual ADP aggregation (1mM) was done on the one PRP and the other PRP was treated in the same manner with the addition of saline in place of ADP. The platelets obtained from the two PRP were then analyzed in the same manner so as to compare the fatty acid composition of platelet total lipids under the two conditions. The correlation coefficients between the difference in individual fatty acid concentration under the two conditions and the concentration of the fatty acid without the addition of ADP were significant in 18:0 and 18:1 (p<0.01) and in 18:2 and 20:4 (p<0.05). From the results it was concluded that fatty acid composition of platelet converged to a certain level when it was aggregated by the addition of ADP. The same trends were observed following aggregation to epinephrine or collagen.