Counting and Tracking : Development and Use of New Methods for Detailed Analysis of Thrombus Formation

Blood platelets are a part of the complex system called haemostasis aimed at ensuring our blood’s continuous transport of oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. The transport is ensured by limiting blood loss due to vessel injury and in this process, the platelets form a plug in the damaged area, reinforced by the formation of fibrin. Similar mechanisms may cause thrombus formation, often triggered by atherosclerotic plaque rupture, causing vessel occlusion, embolism or ischemia, which may cause irreversible damage to the heart or the brain. Platelet research is crucial for improved prevention and treatment of thrombotic disorders. For such research, flow chambers are an interesting tool for studies of platelet adhesion, aggregation and thrombus formation under similar flow conditions as in the blood vessels, which is important, as the flow affects the mechanisms involved in both haemostasis and thrombosis. Flow chambers can be designed for specific purposes, such as for the study of haemostasis at specific flow conditions or to evaluate drugs or biomaterials. In this thesis, our aim has been to improve the usefulness of in-vitro flow chambers and develop a more robust and informative image analysis of such experiments. Initially, we introduced an internal control within each flow chamber experiment, thereby reducing the experimental variance caused by unknown factors. Furthermore, control and sample were thus exposed to identical experimental settings. By using platelet count as quantification of thrombus formation we introduce a method of analysis with increased or similar sensitivity to today’s standards. The platelet count method facilitated comparison of results obtained in different types of flow chambers by an absolute scale of measurement, independent of user settings. The platelet count method was further developed so that additional parameters could be analysed, providing more information about each individual platelet and the overall thrombus. The parameters analysed included platelet stability, height, movement and contraction. The method was used to evaluate how the pharmacokinetics of a reversible (ticagrelor) and irreversible (prasugrel) platelet ADP-receptor inhibitor affected the overall thrombus formation. Especially, how a non-inhibited platelet fraction, formed between drug administrations of irreversible inhibitors, affected thrombus formation. In addition, we sought to understand the regulation of the thrombin receptor, PAR1, expression in cancer cells. We found the microRNA miR20b to be antioncogenic through its downregulation of PAR1 expression. This thesis contains numerous flow chamber experiments. However, for further use and full potential of the method increased standardisation is important. Our work regarding the quantification and analysis of flow chamber experiments will contribute to a more robust analysis and maybe even more important, provide new and detailed information on thrombus formation.