A new trauma frontier: Exploratory pilot study of platelet transcriptomics in trauma patients.

Background: The earliest measurable changes to postinjury platelet biology may be in the platelet transcriptome, as platelets are known to carry messenger ribonucleic acids (RNAs), and there is evidence in other inflammatory and infectious disease states of differential and alternative platelet RNA splicing in response to changing physiology. Thus, the aim of this exploratory pilot study was to examine the platelet transcriptome and platelet RNA splicing signatures in trauma patients compared with healthy donors.

Methods: Preresuscitation platelets purified from trauma patients (n = 9) and healthy donors (n = 5) were assayed using deep RNA sequencing.

Identification of injury and shock driven effects on ex vivo platelet aggregometry: A cautionary tale of phenotyping.

Background: Platelet behavior in trauma-induced coagulopathy is poorly understood. Injured patients have impaired platelet aggregation (dysfunction) in ex vivo agonist-stimulated platelet aggregometry (PA). However, PA assumes that platelets are inactivated before ex vivo stimulated aggregation, which may be altered by injury.

A journey upstream: Fluctuating platelet-specific genes in cell-free plasma as proof-of-concept for using ribonucleic acid sequencing to improve understanding of postinjury platelet biology.

Background: The mechanisms of aberrant circulating platelet behavior following injury remain unclear. Platelets retain megakaryocyte immature ribonucleic acid (RNA) splicing and protein synthesis machinery to alter their functions based on physiologic signals. We sought to identify fluctuating platelet-specific RNA transcripts in cell-free plasma (CFP) from traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients as proof-of-concept for using RNA sequencing to improve our understanding of postinjury platelet behavior.