title: The sweeter aspects of platelet activation: A lectin-based assay reveals agonist-specific glycosylation patterns.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The diversity of platelet functions implies multiple activation states arising in response to different stimuli. Distinguishing between these states has been challenging.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used fluorescently labelled carbohydrate binding proteins lectins to investigate agonist-induced changes in platelet surface glycosylation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Each of the seven agonists we used caused a unique set of changes in platelet surface glycosylation, eliciting a unique functional state. Some of these changes could be correlated with the expression of granule-specific markers CD62P and CD63, but lectins proved much more sensitive to differences between agonists than antibodies against those markers. This sensitivity appears to arise from the relation between the surface glycosylation changes and the signalling pathways through which various agonists act. In this context it is interesting that the effects of calcium ionophore were significantly different from those of other agonists. We also found that that P-selectin (CD62P) contains haptens for lectins VFA and PTII, because these lectins compete with the anti-CD62P antibody binding and vice a versa.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We report for the first time that changes in platelet surface glycosylation are agonist-specific and can be distinguished using lectin-binding assays. Lectin fingerprinting represents a new research and diagnostic tool for studying platelet activation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The observation of agonist-specific platelet surface glycosylation changes is interesting in the context of the diversity of platelet function, because surface glycans mediate contact interactions between platelets and other cells and serve as binding sites for some of the agonists (galectins).
authors.affiliation: Biosurfaces Unit, CIC biomaGUNE, Paseo Miramón 182, San Sebastián 20009, Spain; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of the Basque Country, 28940 Leioa, Spain.
authors.forename: Swati
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Hermann-von Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany; Faculty of Engineering, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Alameda Urquijo s/n., 48013 Bilbao, Spain. Electronic address: Ilya.Reviakine@kit.edu.
authors.forename: Ilya
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Reviakine
keywords: Glycobiology; Haemostasis; Lectins; Platelet activation; Platelets