What is the role of hydrogen peroxide in the aggregation of human platelets?
Hydrogen peroxide is formed intracellularly during platelet activation and plays a role in enhancing platelet aggregation.
The aggregation of platelets induced by soluble and particulate stimuli is enhanced by the addition of minute amounts of H2O2. Externally added catalase strongly inhibits the aggregation induced by particulate stimuli and by phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). The addition of aminotriazole to stimulated platelets causes a significant inhibition of intracellular catalase. This indicates the formation of H2O2 inside the platelets during activation. No effects were observed when the platelets were stimulated by the ionophore A23187.
Principe et al. (Mon,) studied this question.