Blood clotting or blood coagulation can be defined as the process through which blood is modified from the liquid form and turned into a gel that is commonly known as a blood clot. Blood coagulation prevents blood from losing from an injured and wounded vessel, organ or tissue. The underlying procedure of blood coagulation is comprised of two fundamental systems. The first system involves the development of a blood clot named thrombus, which is comprised of a complex series of cellular systems built on platelets. According to this process, platelets revolve throughout the blood and formulate a plug over an injured vessel of blood. Meanwhile, the second system features the formulation of a fibrin clot. Evidently, the first and second systems work in harmony and make clot by considering three interrelated imperative clotting or coagulation factors, which are as follows:
- Coagulation factors developed in the lever
- Ionized calcium attained through blood
- phospholipids
The process of blood coagulation is comprised of ten underlying steps, which start from an injury to a blood vessel. The second step is platelet adhesion, which takes place to join the membrane receptors located on the exterior side of the affected endothelium. In the third step, platelets become activated and excrete granules into the plasma. Activation of protein-based kinase and alterations of kallikrein into Kinin are the fourth and fifth phases, respectively. Afterwards comes the stage of development of a blood clotting cascade that, in turn, activates prothrombin into thrombin. Now comes the stage of controlling thrombin, which is necessary because the excessive release of this substance can pose a harmful impact. Activation of fibrinogen into fibrin and then suspension of fibrin clot are ninth and tenth stages. The instant procedure of blood clotting that stops blood from losing is medically known as hemostasis.
Work Cited
Team, The MNT Editorial. “What Is Coagulation? How Does Our Blood Clot?” Medical News
Today, MediLexicon International, 29 Mar. 2016,
www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/hemophilia/what-is-coagulation.php.
