title: Harnessing the platelet signaling network to produce an optimal hemostatic response.
abstract: Once released into the circulation by megakaryocytes, circulating platelets can undergo rapid activation at sites of vascular injury and resist unwarranted activation, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Historically, the signaling mechanisms underlying the regulation of platelet activation have been approached as a collection of individual pathways unique to agonist. This review takes a different approach, casting platelet activation as the product of a signaling network, in which activating and restraining mechanisms interact in a flexible network that regulates platelet adhesiveness, cohesion between platelets, granule secretion, and the formation of a stable hemostatic thrombus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. brass@mail.med.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Lawrence F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Brass
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tomaiuolo
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Stalker
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001792:Blood Platelets / Q000502:physiology*; D006487:Hemostasis; D006801:Humans; D015539:Platelet Activation; D015398:Signal Transduction