@article{ed7ff783e2414baf9686c0c0a5285b92,
title = "Specific inhibiting characteristics of tetramethylpyrazine, one of the active ingredients of the Chinese herbal medicine 'Chuanxiong,' on platelet thrombus formation under high shear rates",
abstract = "We have investigated the effects of tetramethylpyrazine, one of the active ingredients of the Chinese herbal medicine Chuanxiong, on platelet thrombus formation under flow conditions. We demonstrate herein that tetramethylpyrazine inhibits shear-induced platelet aggregation under relatively high shear rate of 10,800 s-1 with modest inhibition of those occurring under relatively low shear rate of 1200 s-1 by using optically modified cone-plate viscometer. We also demonstrate that platelet activation induced by shearing in the absence of exogenous platelet-activating agents such as ADP as evidenced by P-selectin surface expression and microparticle release detected by quantitative flow cytometry was also inhibited by tetramethylpyrazine. Moreover, we also demonstrate platelet thrombus formation on the collagen and von Willebrand factor (vWF) surface at high shear rates without significant influences on those occurring under relatively low shear rates. Because platelet thrombus formation occurring under high shear rates is known to be mediated by the vWF interaction with platelet receptor proteins GP Ibα and GP IIb/IIIa, we speculated that tetramethylpyrazine exerts antiplatelet effects by inhibiting the vWF-mediated process of platelet thrombus formation. Our findings, indicating the unique antiplatelet characteristics of tetramethylpyrazine, selectively inhibiting the platelet thrombus formation under high shear rates, provide good reasons for developing chemical analogs having biological functions similar to or more potent than those of tetramethylpyrazine as antiplatelet agents having unique biological functions.",
keywords = "GP Ibα, GP IIb/IIIa, Shear, Tetramethylpyrazine, Von Willebrand factor",
author = "Min LI and Shunnosuke Handa and Yasuo Ikeda and Shinya Goto",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported in part by a grant-in-aid for Scientific Research in Japan (09770506, 11770367, 13670744), by grant JSPS-RFTF97I00201 from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, by grant from the Science Frontier Program of MESSC of Japan, by a grant from the 1998 Takeda Science Foundation, by the grant from the Yamanouchi Foundation for Research on Metabolic Disorders 1998, by a grant from the Japanese Medical Association 1998, a research fund of the Mitsukoshi Health and Welfare Foundation 1999, the Suzuken Memorial Fund 1999, and the research fund from the Mitsui Life Insurance Foundation 2000. We would like to thank Dr. FuLong Liao at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Beijing, China), Dr. Liang Liu at the Hong Kong Baptist University School of Chinese Medicine (Hong Kong, China), and Dr. XiLin Niu at Tokai University (Isehara, Japan) for kindly providing purified tetramethylpyrazine. We would also thank Dr. Akinobu Endo, the President of the Kohoku Society of Oriental Medicine (Yokohama, Japan), Dr. Mituo Ebara, the President of the Yokohama City Society of Hospital (Yokohama, Japan), Dr. Hisae Ebara at Takada Chuo Hospital (Yokohama, Japan), and Dr. Shigenori Yomura at the Kashiwacho Orthopaedic Clinic (Yokohama, Japan) for partial financial support to Dr. Min Li. We acknowledge the technical assistance of Ms. Mami Goto, Ms. Tomoe Shimazaki, Ms. Noriko Tamura, and the staff members of the Department of Cardiology, Tokai University School of Medicine.",
year = "2001",
month = oct,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1016/S0049-3848(01)00343-7",
language = "English",
volume = "104",
pages = "15--28",
journal = "Thrombosis Research",
issn = "0049-3848",
publisher = "Elsevier Ltd.",
number = "1",
}