Novel 'superplatelets' can plug excessive bleeding

Scientists have developed "superplatelets" - cell fragments endowed with extra powers that can stop excessive bleeding when a person is experiencing serious injuries or trauma.

Blood platelets stop bleeding by forming clots. However, sometimes these tiny cell fragments fail when a person is experiencing massive bleeding, usually due to trauma.

Researchers have developed a potential strategy for endowing platelets with extra powers so they can rise to the occasion and continue coagulation.

If it's proven to work in clinical situations, such might become a standard part of emergency department supplies, along with bandages, oxygen and saline.

"Coagulation, which depends on a series of complex biochemical reactions, works great for scrapes and paper cuts," said Christian Kastrup, associate professor at University of British Columbia in Canada.

"But trauma often overwhelms this intricate, delicate process. We wanted to make it more resilient," said Kastrup.

Platelets are the first-responders to blood vessel ruptures - they swarm to the edges of an exposed vessel wall, and their shape changes from smooth and round to sticky and star-like, so they can easily clump together.

However, that is only part of coagulation. To plug a wound, the platelets must be woven together into a spongy mass that hardens and contracts into a clot. That weaving is done by a tough material called fibrin, created through a multi-step chain reaction that depends on an enzyme called thrombin.

Under extreme stress, such as trauma, that chain reaction fizzles out for a variety of reasons - what doctors call "trauma-induced coagulopathy" or "TIC."