As people age, they become more prone to blood clotting diseases, when blood cells called platelets clump together when they don't need to and can cause major issues such as strokes and cardiovascular disease.
May 15 2024University of California - Santa Cruz As people age, they become more prone to blood clotting diseases, when blood cells called platelets clump together when they don't need to and can cause major issues such as strokes and cardiovascular disease .
Understanding platelets Platelet cells are one of three types of blood cells produced by the body, with red and white blood cells being the other two. Millions of these cells float around in the blood at all times, and when an injury occurs either internally or externally, they clot together to form a natural, living bandaid. Platelet dysregulation, which is known to increase with age, occurs when these cells are either hyperreactive and form clots too often, or are underperforming.
They conducted experiments that allowed them to trace the lineages of these stem cells in mouse models, and discovered that in aged mice some of their platelets did not travel along the differentiation pathway. Instead, they took what the UCSC researchers dubbed a "shortcut" pathway, skipping over the intermediary steps and immediately becoming megakaryocyte progenitors, the blood cell stage immediately before platelet production.
"The gradual differentiation cascade maintains a youthful property, and I feel like that is also surprising within itself," Poscablo said. Choosing better treatments Knowing that this secondary population of platelets exists will help researchers find new ways to target and regulate these problematic cells via their stem cells. Before this, researchers have not tried to target these upstream cells.
Blood Platelet Aspirin Blood Vessel Cardiovascular Disease Cell Drugs Fluorescence Fluorescence Microscopy Microscopy Platelets Red Blood Cells Research Stem Cells Stroke Vascular
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