Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology
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Arterioscler. Thromb. Vasc. Biol. · Sep 2010
Tobacco smoke induces the generation of procoagulant microvesicles from human monocytes/macrophages.
To investigate whether exposure of human monocytes/macrophages to tobacco smoke induces their release of membrane microvesicles (MVs) that carry tissue factor (TF) released from cells, whether smoke-induced MVs are procoagulant, and what cellular processes might be responsible for their production. ⋯ Tobacco smoke exposure of human monocytes/macrophages induces cell surface TF display, apoptosis, and ERK- and caspase 3-dependent generation of biologically active procoagulant MVs. These processes may be novel contributors to the pathological hypercoagulability of active and secondhand smokers.