However, the ratio of annexin-V positive to negative MV was not sensitive to anticoagulant (r2 = 0.08). MV recovery was the same from blood collected in Vacutainer or non-Vacutainer tubes containing the same concentration of calcium chelating and protease inhibitor click here anticoagulants (not shown). Does calcium chelation suppress MV recovery or do protease inhibitors stimulate shedding? The results with

endothelial MV suggest suppression. We had observed that there was a window of as long as 10 min between phlebotomy and mixing of the blood with anticoagulant during which the MV count was stable. Accordingly, blood (1 mL aliquots) without anticoagulant was centrifuged immediately for 2 min Thiazovivin supplier at 8000 × g or for 10 min at 3000 × g, and then anticoagulants were added to these platelet poor plasmas (PPP). Addition of any anticoagulant to PPP thus prepared from non-anticoagulated blood yielded the same number of annexin-V positive MV as blood collected in H&S anticoagulant ( Fig. 3). The basis for the loss of MV with removal of calcium was addressed by shifting the point of addition of anticoagulants. Adding either calcium chelating or protease inhibitor anticoagulants to isolated MV did not alter MV counts (data not shown). When

calcium chelators were added to the platelet rich plasma (PRP) prepared from the first 800 × g spin of blood collected in H&S or heparin ( Fig. 4, top), platelet MV counts decreased to an extent similar to that seen in whole blood with citrate or EDTA anticoagulants ( Fig. 4, bottom). In contrast, addition of H&S or heparin to PRP prepared from blood collected in calcium chelating anticoagulants did not further affect numbers of MV ( Fig. 4, bottom). Whole blood collected in either citrate or H&S was Methocarbamol distributed into 1.5 mL tubes and maintained at either room temperature (ca. 22 °C) or 33 °C for up to 3 h, during which MV counts were obtained at intervals. For whole blood collected in citrate, counts

of annexin-V positive and platelet MV decreased within 15 min and were significantly lower after one hour at either temperature (data not shown). In contrast, counts of annexin-V and platelet MV did not change significantly within the first hour at either temperature in blood collected in H&S but increased significantly thereafter (Fig. 5). The increase in counts of stained MV was greater at room temperature than at 33 °C. However, the percentage of platelets expressing surface P-selectin, activated glycoprotein αIIbβ3, phosphatidylserine remained < 5% in all samples. Counts of endothelial MV did not change during the three hours at either temperature. Centrifugation of PFP at 20,000 × g recovered on average 80% of the MV measured by direct staining of PFP (r2 = 0.8). More than 90% of platelet MV were recovered after a wash with Hanks’/HEPES of MV pelleted by the 20,000 × g centrifugation (n = 66).