Abstract
Many disorders, such as sepsis or trauma, may lead to an upregulation of the coagulation cascade. The resulting procoagulant state may lead to the formation of microvascular thrombi that can disturb organ microcirculation and promote the development of organ dysfunction (2). Glucono-delta-lactone (GDL) is a low toxicity substance that is found naturally in the human body. Previous studies have shown that GDL has an anticoagulant effect in blood (3). This research experiment focuses on testing GDL during procoagulant states of citrated whole blood, specifically during an upregulation of tissue factor and thrombin. This research showed that GDL administration may prove to be useful in prolonging clotting times during these instances, especially early and late in the upregulated coagulation cascade. It is possible that GDL functions by antagonizing a relevant receptor site of thrombin and of tissue factor. However, it is not known at this time by which mechanism GDL employs to oppose the effects of either procoagulants, thrombin or tissue factor.