Modeling the cleavage of von Willebrand factor by ADAMTS13 protease in shear flow

In case of a vascular injury, a complex hemostatic process is initiated, where various blood components form a plug (or clot) at the injury site in order to stop bleeding. Von Willebrand factor (VWF) is a key player in the primary hemostatic process and acts as a ‘glue’, mediating adhesion of blood platelets to the areas of damaged endothelial cells with exposed collagen [1–3]. In fact, at high enough shear rates VWF function is indispensable, because platelets are not able to bind efficiently to an injury site by themselves [4,5].

Source: Medical Engineering and Physics - July 19, 2017 Category: Biomedical Engineering Authors: Brooke Huisman, Masoud Hoore, Gerhard Gompper, Dmitry A. Fedosov Source Type: research