Go to JCI Insight
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Alerts
  • Advertising/recruitment
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • By specialty
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Gastroenterology
    • Immunology
    • Metabolism
    • Nephrology
    • Neuroscience
    • Oncology
    • Pulmonology
    • Vascular biology
    • All ...
  • Videos
    • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
    • Author's Takes
  • Reviews
    • View all reviews ...
    • 100th Anniversary of Insulin's Discovery (Jan 2021)
    • Hypoxia-inducible factors in disease pathophysiology and therapeutics (Oct 2020)
    • Latency in Infectious Disease (Jul 2020)
    • Immunotherapy in Hematological Cancers (Apr 2020)
    • Big Data's Future in Medicine (Feb 2020)
    • Mechanisms Underlying the Metabolic Syndrome (Oct 2019)
    • Reparative Immunology (Jul 2019)
    • View all review series ...
  • Viewpoint
  • Collections
    • Recently published
    • In-Press Preview
    • Commentaries
    • Concise Communication
    • Editorials
    • Viewpoint
    • Top read articles
  • Clinical Medicine
  • JCI This Month
    • Current issue
    • Past issues

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Specialties
  • Reviews
  • Review series
  • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
  • Author's Takes
  • In-Press Preview
  • Commentaries
  • Concise Communication
  • Editorials
  • Viewpoint
  • Top read articles
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Alerts
  • Advertising/recruitment
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
Fibrin films: overlooked hemostatic barriers against microbial infiltration
Sean X. Gu, Steven R. Lentz
Sean X. Gu, Steven R. Lentz
Published June 25, 2018
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2018;128(8):3243-3245. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI121858.
View: Text | PDF
Commentary

Fibrin films: overlooked hemostatic barriers against microbial infiltration

  • Text
  • PDF
Abstract

The hemostatic response to vascular injury culminates in a fibrin clot network that forms an initial barrier to blood loss and also contributes to microbial host defense. Fibrinogen is cleaved by thrombin into fibrin monomers that spontaneously polymerize into protofibrils and form the extensive fiber networks characteristic of blood clots. In this issue of the JCI, Macrae and colleagues characterize an alternative fibrin structure in which fibrinogen and fibrin assemble into a continuous 2D film at the exterior face of the fibrin clot network. Fibrin films connect to the underlying fiber network through tethering fibers and provide a protective barrier to microbial infiltration. These findings shed new light on a previously overlooked mechanism of fibrin assembly at the clot surface and provide a link between hemostasis and innate immunity.

Authors

Sean X. Gu, Steven R. Lentz

×

Figure 1

Structure and function of fibrin films.

Options: View larger image (or click on image) Download as PowerPoint
Structure and function of fibrin films.
(A) Schematic representation of ...
(A) Schematic representation of a film composed of fibrinogen and fibrin monomers forming a continuous 2D sheet at the air-liquid interface. Tethering fibrin protofibrils extend through a transition zone into a network of branching polymeric fibrin fibers. The fibrin film functions as a barrier at the external clot surface to RBC and prevents microbial invasion into the wound. (B) Disruption of the fibrin film allows infiltration of microbes such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and leakage of RBC. Blue: fibrin D domain; red, E domain.
Follow JCI:
Copyright © 2021 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)

Sign up for email alerts