OBJECTIVES In an effort to evaluate pharmacologic agents for optimal anticoagulant prophylaxis in patients undergoing free tissue transfer, we evaluated the efficacy of desirudin (Canyon Pharmaceuticals, Hunt Valley, MD), a recombinant hirudin that acts as a direct thrombin inhibitor, using a rat model of microvenous thrombosis. STUDY DESIGN Randomized, blinded study using an in vivo rat mode...

abstract         background and objective: hirudin is an anticoagulant polypeptide secreted from the salivary glands of leeches. recombinant hirudin is a strong anticoagulant agent in arterial and venous thrombosis. the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of inserting protein a signal peptide sequence of pezz18 plasmid on expression and secretion of the recombinant hirudin in e.coli.  ...

Illustrations by the Dutch renaissance artists Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Jan Wierix both show a man imprisoned on a pillory, a former place of enforcement of judicial sentences, and playing a musical instrument. Taken as legal iconographic sources, these illustrations of the old saying 'He plays on the pillory' can be understood as references to a specific kind of punishment used in the Midd...

Recombinant desulfatohirudin (r-hirudin), a highly specific inhibitor of thrombin, was examined to determine whether it would inhibit production of experimental lung metastasis by B16-F10 melanoma cells. In in vitro assays using mouse plasma, the high level of procoagulant activity in B16-F10 cells was significantly inhibited by r-hirudin in a dose-dependent manner. From 15 to 120 min after s.c...

Acute vascular diseases and other thromboses of the blood system constitute major health risks in developing countries. Thrombin plays a central role in blood coagulation, which is a crucial process involved in thrombosis. Direct thrombin inhibitors (DTIs) such as argatroban, dabigatran, dabigatran etexilate, lepirudin, desirudin and bivalirudin, which bind to thrombin and block its enzymatic a...

The use of medicinal leeches (Hiruda medicinalis) is becoming more common after plastic surgery to control venous congestion of skin grafts. We describe a patient with Aeromonas hydrophila infection whose graft was treated with medicinal leeches. The infection required systemic antibiotic therapy. A. hydrophila is the predominant bacterial flora in the gut of the leech, where it plays an essent...