Abstract
In resting platelets, adhesive membrane glycoproteins are attached to the cytoskeleton. On strong activation, phosphatidylserine(PS)-positive and -negative platelet subpopulations are formed. Platelet activation is accompanied by cytoskeletal rearrangement, although the glycoprotein attachment status in these two subpopulations is not clear. We developed a new, flow cytometry-based, single-cell approach to investigate attachment of membrane glycoproteins to the cytoskeleton in cell subpopulations. In PS-negative platelets, adhesive glycoproteins integrin αIIbβ3, glycoprotein Ib and, as shown for the first time, P-selectin were associated with the cytoskeleton. In contrast, this attachment was disrupted in PS-positive platelets; it was retained to some extent only in the small convex regions or 'caps'. It correlated with the degradation of talin and filamin observed only in PS-positive platelets. Calpain inhibitors essentially prevented the disruption of membrane glycoprotein attachment in PS-positive platelets, as well as talin and filamin degradation. With the suggestion that detachment of glycoproteins from the cytoskeleton may affect platelet adhesive properties, we investigated the ability of PS-positive platelets to resist shear-induced breakaway from the immobilized fibrinogen. Shear rates of 500/s caused PS-positive platelet breakaway, but their adhesion stability increased more than 10-fold after pretreatment of the platelets with calpain inhibitor. In contrast, the ability of PS-positive platelets to adhere to immobilized von Willebrand's factor at 100/s was low, but this was not affected by the preincubation of platelets with a calpain inhibitor. Our data suggest that calpain-controlled detachment of membrane glycoproteins is a new mechanism that is responsible for the loss of ability of the procoagulant platelets to resist detachment from thrombi by high shear stress.