RESEARCH ARTICLE
COX-2 Inhibition by Use of Rofecoxib or High Dose Aspirin Enhances ADP-Induced Platelet Aggregation in Fresh Blood
Piet Borgdorff*, M. Louis Handoko, Yeun Ying Wong, Geert Jan Tangelder
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2010Volume: 4
First Page: 198
Last Page: 205
Publisher ID: TOCMJ-4-198
DOI: 10.2174/1874192401004010198
Article History:
Received Date: 23/8/2010Revision Received Date: 9/9/2010
Acceptance Date: 13/9/2010
Electronic publication date: 21/10/2010
Collection year: 2010
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Aim:
Increased cardiovascular risk after use of selective or nonselective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)-inhibitors might partly be caused by enhanced platelet aggregability. However, an effect of COX-2 inhibition on platelets has so far not been observed in humans.
Methods:
We tested in healthy volunteers the effect of COX-2-inhibition nearly in-vivo, i.e. immediately after and even during blood sampling.
Results:
Measurement within 2 minutes after venipuncture, but not 60 minutes later, showed that 50 mg of rofecoxib (n=12) or 500 (n=8) or 1000 (n=8) mg of aspirin increased ADP-induced platelet aggregation in a whole-blood aggregometer to, respectively, 152, 176 and 204 % of basal level (p<0.01). No significant differences in aggregability were observed after ingestion of 80 mg of aspirin (n=16), or placebo (n=8). Plasma 6-keto-PGF1α was decreased to 74 % after rofecoxib and to 76 and 70 % after 500 and 1000 mg of aspirin but did not change after low dose aspirin. Continuous photometrical measurement of aggregation in blood flowing from a cannulated vein revealed that high dose aspirin did not elicit aggregation by itself, but increased ADP-induced aggregation in proportion to the decrease in prostacyclin formation (r=0.68, p = 0.004). Since in these experiments thromboxane production was virtually absent, the enhanced aggregation after partial COX-2 inhibition was not caused by unopposed thromboxane formation.
Conclusions:
We conclude that both selective and nonselective COX-2 inhibition enhances ADP-induced platelet aggregation in humans. This effect can only be detected during or immediately after venipuncture, possibly because of the short half-life of prostacyclin.
