RESEARCH PROFILE: Single-cell amperometry reveals platelets' secrets

摘要

Platelets are the smallest and simplest of cells, lacking a nucleus and much of the biochemical machinery that drives every other cell in the body. But their simplicity belies their key role in hemostasis, the multistep biochemical cascade that stops bleeding. In a recent AC paper (DOI 10.1021/ac8024202), Christy Haynes and colleagues at the University of Minnesota describe their use of single-cell amperometry to tease out many of the details of serotonin release from individual platelets--a key step in triggering clot formation and vessel repair. "Using carbon-fiber microelectrodes, we've been able to make the first real-time, dynamic measurements showing that serotonin release from platelets is quantal in nature," says Haynes. Until now, researchers' hard-won knowledge about serotonin release from platelets came from using techniques such as HPLC and radiometric assays. But these methods can only measure the average release over time by a large number of cells. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) provides information about the structural changes that occur upon release from individual platelets, but such measurements are static, representing just a snapshot in time.