Assessment of an ELISA kit for platelet-derived microparticles by joint research at many institutes in Japan

Platelet-derived microparticles (PDMPs) play roles in normal hemostatic responses to vascular injury because they possess prothrombinase activity. Although the most widely used method for studying PDMP is flow cytometry, we previously developed an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method as an easier and more reproducible PDMP assay. The purpose of this study was to use various clinical settings to verify whether this ELISA method can produce equivalent results to flow cytometry for PDMP.

We performed a large-scale clinical study for various thrombotic and subatherothrombotic diseases using an ELISA kit. The study group included 692 patients with cerebral infarction, heart failure, acute coronary syndrome or diabetes mellitus.

When baseline PDMP values in the various diseases were compared with those in healthy controls, significant differences were noted in all cases. There were significantly elevated levels of PDMPs in diabetic patients with complications but no thrombosis. When baseline PDMP values in cerebral infarction were compared within the subclassifications, atheroma and other types of infarction exhibited significantly elevated PDMP levels compared with lacunar infarction. Cerebral infarction exhibited a significant change in PDMPs after therapy compared with the baseline (before therapy), but not in acute coronary syndrome and heart failure. The ELISA method exhibited results almost identical to flow cytometry for PDMP in various atherothrombotic diseases.

Although further examinations to evaluate the therapeutic usefulness of these diseases are necessary, ELISA kits possibly represent a new tool for PDMP related to atherothrombosis.