Comparison of Platelet Ultrastructure and Elastic Properties in Thrombo-Embolic Ischemic Stroke and Smoking Using Atomic Force and Scanning Electron Microscopy

Abstract

Thrombo-embolic ischemic stroke is a serious and debilitating disease, and it remains the second most common cause of death worldwide. Tobacco smoke exposure continues to be responsible for preventable deaths around the world, and is a major risk factor for stroke. Platelets play a fundamental role in clotting, and their pathophysiological functioning is present in smokers and stroke patients, resulting in a pro-thrombotic state. In the current manuscript, atomic force and scanning electron microscopy were used to compare the platelets of smokers, stroke patients and healthy individuals. Results showed that the elastic modulus of stroke platelets is decreased by up to 40%, whereas there is an elasticity decrease of up to 20% in smokers’ platelets. This indicates a biophysical alteration of the platelets. Ultrastructurally, both the stroke patients and smokers’ platelets are more activated than the healthy control group, with prominent cytoskeletal rearrangement involved; but to a more severe extent in the stroke group than in the smokers. Importantly, this is a confirmation of the extent of smoking as risk factor for stroke. We conclude by suggesting that the combined AFM and SEM analyses of platelets might give valuable information about the disease status of patients. Efficacy of treatment regimes on the integrity, cell shape, roughness and health status of platelets may be tracked, as this cell’s health status is crucial in the over-activated coagulation system of conditions like stroke.

Smoking is Associated with Increased Blood Loss and Transfusion Use After Lumbar Spinal Surgery

“…Smoking has been attributed to alterations in vascular homeostasis and the normal clotting cascade [22,44]. Research has shown that smoking directly leads to alterations in platelet membranes and causes impairment of their natural function [13,35,38], therefore it seemed plausible to us that there would be an association between smoking and blood loss after spinal surgery. Should that be the case, it would be a modifiable risk factor that potentially could help patients avoid the neurologic compli cations of bleeding after spine surgery (such as development of a compressive hematoma), and the known deleterious effects of transfusions [15,16,20,32,40,42,43,45,52].…”

“…Du Plooy et al [13] found that smoking decreased the elastic modulus of platelets, which suggests a biophysical alteration indicative of cytoskeletal rearrangement resulting in ''softer'' platelets. Padmavathi et al [35] also looked at the effect smoking had on the platelet membranes.…”

“…Research has shown that smoking directly leads to alterations in platelet membranes and causes impairment of their natural function [13,35,38]. Owing to the welldocumented negative effects smoking has on many normal physiologic functions of the human body, we sought to determine whether patients with a smoking history were at an increased risk of blood loss and blood transfusions after undergoing lumbar spinal surgery compared with patients who did not smoke.…”

Cubical Shape Enhances the Interaction of Layer‐by‐Layer Polymeric Particles with Breast Cancer Cells

“…[1] These characteristics affect their behavior while in circulation and under different shear stresses observed in healthy and diseased vasculature, and may change as a result of biological, chemical or physical impulses. [2] For instance, monocytes are able to extravasate through fenestrations in inflamed vasculature, which are several times smaller than their nominal diameter. [3] Platelets have a non-spherical shape that allows them to marginate, or drift laterally, towards the blood vessel boundary in a linear laminar flow closer to the endothelial wall.…”

Automated Detection of Brain Stroke in MRI with Hybrid Fuzzy C-Means Clustering and Random Forest Classifier

“…1,2 Ischemic stroke is characterized by sudden impairment of brain function due to less blood supply. 3 Image segmentation is used for analyzing the changes in brain tissue and delineating the pathological regions. 4 In recent years, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique emerged as an important diagnosis modality for neurological disorders.…”