SUMMARY

Occlusive arterial thrombosis in a stenotic vessel can cause cessation of blood flow to the brain or heart, which can result in a patient’s death. Following the incident, the patient can be given a thrombolytic agent or thrombectomy to recanalize the occluded vessel and regain blood flow. The current standard for the thrombolytic treatment is tPA, which has shown limited efficacy with a bleeding risk.

Arterial thrombus is different from venous thrombus in appearance and composition. The vWF-platelet-rich arterial thrombus can be occlusive, and occasionally, lyse to embolize downstream. It is critical to know what key factors affect the formation of the occlusive arterial thrombus and how the thrombus stabilizes under such a harsh hemodynamic environment of arterial high shear rate and high blood pressure.

The overall goal of this proposal is to characterize a mechanism of acute occlusive arterial thrombus and explore ways to lyse this platelet-rich clot. I hypothesize that the vWF released from platelets is a critical factor to form an occlusive arterial thrombus. Further, I will measure the permeability and mechanical strength of the arterial thrombus as compared to the stagnant blood clot. Finally, I will demonstrate a new agent to create lysis of the platelet-rich arterial thrombus.