Biochemical
and Bioimaging Endpoints in Cardiocerebrovascular Diagnosis,
Prevention, Therapy and Drug Development
GLOSSARY
To
facilitate the dialogue among the multidisciplinary scientists,
definition of the acronyms and of more specialized terms have been
reported.
Every amendment is welcome.
By: Andrea P. Peracino
Stefano Bellosta
Nicola Ferri
Riccardo Roggeri
von Willebrand factor (vWF) mediates platelet adhesion to injured endothelium, the first step in hemostasis. It also helps maintain factor VIII levels. When vWF is deficient, patients have a bleeding disorder called von Willebrand disease (vWD). vWD is the most common hereditary bleeding disorder, of which several subtypes are recognized The von Willebrand factor is a large multimeric glycoprotein found in blood plasma. Mutant forms are involved in the aetiology of bleeding disorders [ 1 ]. In von Willebrand factor, the type A domain (vWF) is the prototype for a protein superfamily. The vWF domain is found in various plasma proteins: complement factors B, C2, CR3 and CR4; the integrins (I-domains); collagen types VI, VII, XII and XIV; and other extracellular proteins [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Proteins that incorporate vWF domains participate in numerous biological events (e.g. cell adhesion, migration, homing, pattern formation, and signal transduction), involving interaction with a large array of ligands
