Heart Diseases – consequence of the evolution of mammals?
A study recently published in the journal "Blood" states that cardiovascular diseases can be a consequence of the evolution of mammals.
This study tried to respond to the question as to why don't other species have platelets as mammals do and the answer that the researchers came up with was that during the evolution period, platelets allowed mammals to protect themselves from injuries due to their ability of forming cellular clots in the blood vessels. During time, the modern evolution of the platelets led to the apparition of cardiovascular diseases.
What are platelets and what do we need them from?
Platelets are what we know as small irregular cells that circulate through our blood and can form blood clots. According to the number of platelets found in the patient's blood, doctors can foresee a number of issues: if the number is too high, blood clots can form and lead thrombosis and if not taken care of, can eventually lead to strokes or pulmonary embolism; if the number is too low, excessive bleeding can appear.
Some of the main medicines for regulating the number of platelets in the patients' blood are the aspirin and clopidogrel.
The odd thing which led to this research is that mammals are the only species that have platelets, whilst the others have thrombocytes, which seem a lot like platelets.
The study was concentrated on birds, because just like mammals, they have a high pressure arterial system, unlike other species. This is why, the researchers concluded that the results of the hemostatis should be very similar to mammals.
One of the main results of this study concluded that thrombocytes have almost the same proteins as platelets with some exceptions: thrombocytes have a lower level of fibrinogen receptor (a key platelet protein) and don't have at all the adenosine dyphosphate receptor (another key protein of the platelet). These two proteins are always the target of the medication for regulating the platelets level in the blood. Why is this important for researchers? Because, in order to help understand the processes occurring when strokes appear or other cardiovascular diseases, it is very important to understand the evolution of the organs and how they appeared.
This research has been supported by the National Institute of Health and was conducted by a group of researchers from Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania.
