Inositol hexakisphosphate increases the size of platelet aggregates

The inositol phosphates, InsP₅ and InsP₆, have recently been identified as binding partners of fibrinogen, which is critically involved in hemostasis by crosslinking activated platelets at sites of vascular injury. Here, we investigated the putative physiological role of this interaction and found that platelets increase their InsP₆ concentration upon stimulation with the PLC-activating agonists thrombin, collagen I and ADP and present a fraction of it at the outer plasma membrane. Cone and plate analysis in whole blood revealed that InsP₆ specifically increases platelet aggregate size. This effect is fibrinogen-dependent, since it is inhibited by an antibody that blocks fibrinogen binding to platelets. Furthermore, InsP₆ has only an effect on aggregate size of washed platelets when fibrinogen is present, while it has no influence in presence of von Willebrand factor or collagen. By employing blind docking studies we predicted the binding site for InsP₆ at the bundle between the γ and β helical subunit of fibrinogen. Since InsP₆ is unable to directly activate platelets and it did not exhibit an effect on thrombin formation or fibrin structure, our data indicate that InsP₆ might be a hemostatic agent that is produced by platelets upon stimulation with PLC-activating agonists to promote platelet aggregation by supporting crosslinking of fibrinogen and activated platelets.