A Comparative Study of Platelet Aggregation in Primates

Abstract

Platelet aggregation response to adenosine diphosphate, epinephrine, norepinephrine, Russell viper venom, and collagen was studied in eight species of primates. Responses were generally qualitatively similar for each agent though they differed in intensity and in velocity among the various species. Phylogenetic patterns of similarity were not marked except in the nearly identical responses in the three species of macaques studied. Phencyclidine tranquilization did not affect the response.

Mammalian platelet adrenoceptors

“…With the exception of those obtained from man and some other primates (O'Brien, 1963;Loeb & Mackey, 1973), platelets from mammalian species do not aggregate on exposure to adrenaline in the absence of another excitatory agonist (Drummond, 1976;Dodds, 1978). Typically such platelets either fail to show such an aggregatory response to adrenaline even in the presence of a second excitatory agonist, e.g.…”