Studying how aquaporin-1 helps platelets inflate with water in blood clotting

The Role of the Water Channel Aquaporin-1 in the regulation of platelet function, procoagulant activity and thrombosis

Platelets are important cells in the blood that stick together and help blood to clot when you cut yourself, to stop excessive bleeding when we’re injured. However, they can also do this in the blood vessels of the heart, which can lead to heart attacks. Researchers around the world study platelets to find ways in which we might control their harmful activity, while retaining our ability to heal from injury. Professor Alastair Poole and his team have discovered that platelets intensify the blood clotting process by inflating themselves with water to increase their surface area. Their earlier work suggests that water enters the platelets through a channel called aquaporin-1. In this project they will use state-of-the-art techniques to investigate how aquaporin-1 is controlled and how it supports the activity of platelets. They will also see how the absence of aquaporin-1 affects blood clotting in genetically engineered mice. If the aquaporin-1 system is revealed as a major regulator of platelet activity, it could be a target for drug design. Developing molecules that interact with aquaporin-1 to stop or slow platelets inflating like ‘water balloons’ might be a new approach to preventing heart attacks.