PGE1 accelerates thrombolysis by tissue plasminogen activator
DE Vaughan, SR Plavin, AI Schafer and J Loscalzo
Division of Cardiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA.
Platelets are an active element in the generation of thrombus and may
influence rates of thrombolysis during the administration of plasminogen
activators. To assess the potential importance of platelet aggregation in
the thrombolytic response to plasminogen activators, we measured rates of
thrombolysis induced by tissue plasminogen activator in the presence and
absence of a coinfusion of prostaglandin E1 in a rabbit jugular vein model
of thrombosis. Rates of lysis were quantified by measuring the half-time
for lysis of the thrombus. At all concentrations of tissue plasminogen
activator used, prostaglandin E1 markedly reduced the half-time for clot
lysis and enhanced somewhat the overall extent of thrombolysis, without
affecting significantly either the degree of fibrinogen depletion or the
animals' mean arterial pressures. These effects on thrombolytic efficacy
were accompanied by ex vivo evidence of platelet inhibition. These data
suggest that the antiplatelet prostaglandin E1 may be a very useful
adjunctive agent in thrombolytic therapy primarily by virtue of the
significant improvement in the rate of thrombolysis that its use affords.
Volume 73,
Issue 5,
pp. 1213-1217,
04/01/1989
Copyright © 1989 by The American Society of Hematology
