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Figure 3 | Journal of Hematology & Oncology

Figure 3

From: The unfolded von Willebrand factor response in bloodstream: the self-association perspective

Figure 3

Model for regulation of the balance of vWF self-association and two forms of flows in blood vessel. A: The regulation of vWF multimer size equilibrates between reducing vWF multimer size and increasing vWF multimer size. Reducing vWF multimer size: In turbulent flow, the elongated vWF multimers are reduced by TSP-1 and ADAMTS13 due to the elevated activities of TSP-1 and ADAMTS13 (cleavage and reduction activity) in response to turbulent flow and can’t self-associate. Increasing vWF multimer size: In laminar flow, the elongated vWF multimers that tend to flow in parallel are undesirable substrates of TSP-1 and ADAMTS13, because some corresponding sites of vWF are buried in vWF fibers. It is speculated that the paralleled vWF multimers are more prone to self-associate to form vWF fibers. B: The turbulence and laminar flow are two of the complex and diverse forms of flow in blood. Turbulent flow is always highly irregular, in which the blood proteins tend to move in different directions at different speeds. vWF multimers undergo conformational change from a loosely coiled ball to an elongated structure in turbulent flow. Laminar flow in a cylindrical vessel can be visualized as a series of fluid layers with different velocity. The laminae close to the vessel wall have less velocity than those near the center (depicted schematically by arrows of different length). The elongated vWF multimers tend to be oriented to each other in laminar flow.

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