Signaling-mediated cooperativity between glycoprotein Ib-IX and protease-activated receptors in thrombin-induced platelet activation

Thrombin-induced cellular response in platelets not only requires protease-activated receptors (PARs), but also involves another thrombin receptor, the glycoprotein Ib-IX complex (GPIb-IX). It remains controversial how thrombin binding to GPIb-IX stimulates platelet responses. It was proposed that GPIb-IX serves as a dock that facilitates thrombin cleavage of protease-activated receptors, but there are also reports suggesting that thrombin binding to GPIb-IX induces platelet activation independent of PARs. Here we show that GPIb is neither a passive thrombin dock nor a PAR-independent signaling receptor. We demonstrate a novel signaling-mediated cooperativity between PARs and GPIb-IX. Low-dose thrombin-induced PAR-dependent cell responses require the cooperativity of GPIb-IX signaling, and conversely, thrombin-induced GPIb-IX signaling requires cooperativity of PARs. This mutually dependent cooperativity requires a GPIb-IX-specific 14-3-3-Rac1-LIMK1 signaling pathway, and activation of this pathway also requires PAR signaling. The cooperativity between GPIb-IX signaling and PAR signaling thus drives platelet activation at low concentrations of thrombin, which are important for in vivo thrombosis.