Studies on mechanisms involved in hypoglycemia-induced platelet activation

The aim of our study was to investigate the mechanisms involved in hypoglycemia-induced platelet activation. Sixteen healthy male subjects received a 60-min intravenous infusion of human regular insulin at the rate of 64 mU . m-2 . min-1: throughout 150 min, we serially measured plasma concentrations of glucose, insulin, and counterregulatory hormones; platelet sensitivity to ADP, thrombin and platelet-activating factor; plasma concentrations of platelet markers for specific proteins of in vivo release reaction (beta-thromboglobulin and platelet factor 4). Our study showed that insulin-induced hypoglycemia causes a significant increase in platelet sensitivity to aggregating agents in vitro and a platelet release reaction in vivo. Hypoglycemia-induced platelet activation was not correlated with plasma glucose concentrations at nadir and occurred before the increase of plasma growth hormone and cortisol. To further elucidate the mechanisms of hypoglycemia-induced platelet activation, we incubated in vitro platelet-rich plasma (PRP) of seven fasting healthy subjects with the same concentrations of insulin, epinephrine, glucagon, growth hormone, and cortisol measured in vivo during insulin-induced hypoglycemia. Only epinephrine was able to increase platelet sensitivity to aggregating agents. To investigate the role of alpha-adrenergic receptors in this phenomenon, we also studied four healthy subjects on another occasion, repeating the above-described insulin infusion together with intravenous infusion of phentolamine (-15 to +150 min), 5 mg over 2 min followed by 500 micrograms/min. alpha-Blockade was able to suppress hypoglycemia-induced increase of platelet sensitivity to aggregating agents.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)