To cite this article: Lindahl TL, Macwan AS, Ramstr€ om S. Protease-activated receptor 4 is more important than protease-activated receptor 1 for the thrombin-induced procoagulant effect on platelets. J Thromb Haemost 2016; 14:1639-41.See also French SL, Arthur JF, Lee H, Nesbitt WS, Andrews RK, Gardiner EE, Hamilton JR. Inhibition of protease-activated receptor 4 impairs platelet procoagulant activity during thrombus formation in human blood. This issue, pp 1642-54.Thrombin is the most important enzyme in coagulation and also a potent activator of platelets. It activates platelets via N-terminal cleavage of protease-activated receptors (PARs) 1 and 4. Although structurally similar, both PARs have distinct and complementary roles; for example, PAR1 is more sensitive than PAR4 to low concentrations of thrombin [1], whereas PAR4 gives rise to a more prolonged calcium mobilization after activation compared with a transient 'spike' by PAR1 [2]. Moreover, PAR4 is more important for clot lysis resistance [3]. After activation, a subpopulation of the platelets become procoagulant by allowing the formation of coagulation factor complexes on their surface. They do not participate in aggregation but facilitate generation of even more thrombin and, consequently, amplification of the response [4]. Experimental data suggest that collagen exposed during vessel damage in combination with thrombin is the most potent trigger for formation of procoagulant platelets [5], but the signaling processes regulating the formation of the aggregatory and procoagulant platelet subpopulations are still not known in detail.The article by Hamilton and co-workers in this issue of JTH [6] shows for the first time that activation of PAR4 is crucial for the thrombin-induced activation of platelets in an in vitro thrombus model; that is, platelets adhered on a collagen surface in a flow chamber system. Two tools were essential for this study, a rabbit polyclonal antibody directed towards the cleavage site for thrombin at the N-terminal of PAR4 and a fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based thrombin activity sensor linked to an anti-CD41a antibody, to prevent washing out by the flowing blood, which was invented by Welsh et al. [7]. The anti-PAR4 antibody only attenuated the peak of the thrombin-induced cytosolic calcium but abolished the sustained elevation of cytosolic calcium; thus PAR4 was responsible for the sustained elevation, in accordance with previous studies [8][9][10][11][12]. Presumably this sustained elevation is essential for the creation of the negatively charged surface and the procoagulant activity, which is supported by the known very strong effect in this direction by the calcium ionophore A23187 (see Fig. 4G in [6] and [13]).The relative importance of PAR1 and PAR4 for different aspects of platelet activation is far from clear; published studies have shown various, even contradicting, results. To be able to answer questions regarding the relative importance of PAR1 and PAR4 in the platelet procoagulant response, we need to st...