Abstract
Summary
1. A small injury has been created with a laser beam in a venule of a rabbit ear chamber. The injury is caused by the absorption of light by carbon particles injected into the blood stream of the rabbit and the subsequent generation of heat. 2. This injury results in formation of a thrombus in the vessel without apparent intervention of perivascular, or extravascular, factors. 3. The thrombus grows by the adherence of white cells and platelets to the lesion over a period of hours. 4. Resolution of the lesion results from a failure of further sticking of these elements, suggesting the existence in the blood stream of some “anti-sticking” mechanism, possibly in conjunction with the normal “erosive” properties of red blood cell flow. 5. The morphologic characteristics of the injury in vivo, and by histologic sectioning have been described. 6. There is evidence that the endothelial cytoplasm may have phagocytic properties under the conditions of the experiments described here.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.