bleeding and blood clotting, escape of blood from blood vessels into surrounding tissue and the process of coagulation through the action of platelets.

Significance of hemostasis

The evolution of high-pressure blood circulation in vertebrates has brought with it the risk of bleeding after injury to tissues. Mechanisms to prevent bleeding (i.e., hemostatic mechanisms) are essential to maintain the closed blood-circulatory system. Normal hemostasis is the responsibility of a complex system of three individual components: blood cells (platelets), cells that line the blood vessels (endothelial cells), and blood proteins (blood-clotting proteins). The blood platelet is a nonnucleated cell that circulates in the blood in an inactive, resting form. Endothelial cells line the wall of the blood vessel and inhibit blood from clotting on the vessel wall under normal conditions. Blood-clotting proteins circulate in the blood plasma in an inactive form, poised to participate in blood coagulation upon tissue injury. Blood-clotting proteins generate thrombin, an enzyme that converts fibrinogen to fibrin, and a reaction that leads to the formation of a fibrin clot.

The hemostatic mechanism involves three physiologically important reactions: (1) the formation of a blood clot, (2) the formation of a platelet plug, and (3) changes associated with the wall of the blood vessel after injury of its cells. In humans, defects in any of these processes may result in persistent bleeding from slight injuries, or, alternatively, in an overreaction that causes the inappropriate formation of blood clots (thrombosis) in blood vessels. When a blood vessel is injured, blood escapes for as long as the vessel remains open and the pressure within the vessel exceeds that outside. Blood flow can be stopped or diminished by closing the leak or by equalizing the pressure. The leak may be closed by contraction of the blood vessel wall or by the formation of a solid plug. Pressure may be equalized by an increase in external pressure as blood becomes trapped in the tissues (hematoma) or by a decrease in the intravascular pressure (the pressure within the blood vessel) caused by constriction of a supply vessel. The timing and relative importance of these events can vary with the scale of the injury. Bleeding from the smallest vessels can be stopped by platelet plugs; when bleeding is from larger vessels, blood clot formation is required; in still larger vessels the severe drop in pressure associated with shock is the last line of defense.

The hemostatic process

Blood vessels that constitute the circulatory system include arterioles (the smallest arteries) and venules (the smallest veins) connected by capillaries (the smallest of all blood vessels). Blood cells, including red cells and platelets, normally have no tendency to adhere to each other or to the lining (endothelium) of the vessels. An injury too slight to rupture a vessel, however, may still bring about a hemostatic reaction that causes blood cells to adhere to each other. After minor tissue injury there may be partial vessel contraction and platelet adhesion in successive layers at the point of injury. A platelet mass is formed that grows until it blocks, or almost blocks, the vessel. Sometimes this platelet mass breaks down and then reforms, a cycle that repeats perhaps many times. These masses consist of minimally altered platelets. Even these slight injuries cause shedding of some endothelial cells from the vessel and the exposure of deeper layers to which the platelets adhere.

If the vessel is cut so that blood escapes, the hemostatic reaction is different. In muscular vessels there may be immediate contraction and narrowing of the vessel, but this usually only minimizes blood loss. A mass of activated platelets adheres to the site of vessel injury (a platelet plug) and normally stops the flow of blood out of the vessel. Unlike the platelets circulating in the blood and those adhering to minor tissue injuries, these platelets have undergone a biochemical and morphological change characteristic of platelet activation, a process that includes the secretion of the contents of platelet granules into the surrounding blood and the extension of pseudopodia. Between the platelets develop bundles of fibrin fibres (coagulation). These changes occur near damaged collagen, the fibrous protein found in connective tissue that underlies the endothelial cell. Later, normal healing of the wound occurs. The platelets subsequently degenerate into an amorphous mass and after several days, the fibrin itself is dissolved (fibrinolysis) by an enzyme, plasmin. The fibrin clot is replaced by a permanent framework of scar tissue that includes collagen, and healing is thus complete.

Britannica Quiz

Diseases, Disorders, and More: A Medical Quiz

The normal hemostatic response to damage to the vascular endothelium can be organized into four stages: (1) initial vasoconstriction, (2) aggregation of platelets on and around the lesion and the formation of a platelet plug, (3) activation of the reactions of coagulation, and (4) the activation of fibrinolysis.