Blood Coagulation as a Continuous Process^[*)]

 

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Summary

In order to study the phenomenon of spontaneous hemorrhages in cases of diminished clotting power, we performed an investigation with the aid of the electron-microscope by means of a replica technique, on the aspect of aorta endothelium in two groups of rabbits, the first with a normal clotting power, the second with a hypocoagulability. Comparison of these two groups revealed two points of discrepancy. In the first place, in all the preparations of normal rabbits we saw fibres lying perpendicular to the borderlines of endothelial cells. These fibres were hardly seen under conditions of hypocoagulability, which is one of the arguments for equating these filaments with fibrin. In the second place, the nuclei of endothelial cells were less prominent into the vascular lumen in hypocoagulability than in cases of normal clotting power. From these observations and from some theoretical arguments we came to the hypothesis that blood coagulation is a continuous process which lays down fibrin fibres on the endothelium and which influences the swelling of the cytoplasm of endothelial cells. We could not get more information concerning the problem of how erythrocytes can penetrate endothelium in cases of hypocoagulability by studying the aspect of the blood-urine barrier in the glomeruli in the same two groups of rabbits.

^* This investigation was supported by a grant from Eli Lilly and Compagny, Indianapolis U.S.A.

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