COMPACTION AS A METHOD TO CHARACTERIZE FIBRIN NETWORK STRUCTURE - KINETIC-STUDIES AND RELATIONSHIP TO CROSS-LINKING

While it has been shown that compaction is inversely correlated to the Young's modulus of elasticity of the network and to the final strengt h at break, the relationship between collapsibility of the network sub jected to a standardised centrifugal force and the degree of crosslink ing (i.e., compaction) has not been properly addressed. Three sets of networks developed from plasma and pure fibrinogen solution, with vary ing degree of crosslinking induced by the addition of different amount s of calcium, were subjected to centrifugation at 8000g. In networks d eveloped from plasma, compaction correlated with the degree of crossli nking. Whilst totally crosslinked clots were most resistant to collaps e, partially crosslinked clots were far less resistant to collapse. In purified fibrinogen, however, the effect crosslinking was all or noth ing. Both totally crosslinked and partially crosslinked clots were equ ally resistant to collapse. Calcium induced crosslinking provides fibr in with the required strengthening of the fibrin network. However, the re are also fibre to fibre interactions as can be observed in networks developed in the presence of drugs like gliclazide. Compaction is a s imple technique which can be used in any clinical laboratory to charac terise the degree of crosslinking and also the tensile properties of t he network. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.