Vascular injury initiates rapid platelet activation that is critical for hemostasis, but it also may cause thrombotic diseases, such as myocardial infarction or ischemic stroke. Reorganizations of the platelet cytoskeleton are crucial for platelet shape change and secretion and are thought to involve activation of the small GTPase RhoA. In this study, we analyzed the in vitro and in vivo consequences of megakaryocyte- and platelet-specific RhoA gene deletion in mice.
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