BIOTINYLATED PLATELETS - A NEW APPROACH TO THE MEASUREMENT OF PLATELET LIFE-SPAN

The in vivo life span of dog platelets was determined by derivatizing whole blood with N-hydroxysuccinimido biotin, reinfusing the biotinyla ted blood and subsequently monitoring the survival of the biotinylated platelets with flow cytometry. We found that the biotinylated platele ts had a mean life span of 6.0 +/- 1.1 d as determined by curve-fittin g the platelet disappearance data to gamma functions. These data are i n good agreement with literature values of platelet life span for cani ne platelets labelled with either Indium-111-oxine or Chromium-51. Bio tinylated platelets were analysed after reinfusion and found to aggreg ate normally in response to the agonists adenosine diphosphate and pho rbol myristate acetate. These experiments demonstrate that biotinylate d platelets survive normally in vivo and that this labelling method ca n be used for determining platelet life spans.