Updated November 07, 2013.
Written or reviewed by a board-certified physician. See About.com's Medical Review Board.
Definition:
The formation of fibrin is the end-product of the activation of the blood's clotting factors. These clotting factors are a group of specialized blood proteins that is activated whenever an injury occurs to a blood vessel and causes bleeding. The activated clotting factors produce a cascade of events that result in the formation of fibrin.
Strands of fibrin come together to form a mesh of string-like protein at the site of the injury.
The fibrin mesh binds to platelets that have stuck together to plug the bleeding site, thus strengthening and stabilizing the platelet plug. The result is a blood clot.
In thrombosis, or abnormal blood clotting, a chief goal of treatment is to inhibit any further formation of fibrin (which is done with anticoagulation therapy) or to "dissolve" fibrin that has already been formed (which is done with fibrinolytic agents).
Written or reviewed by a board-certified physician. See About.com's Medical Review Board.
Definition:
The formation of fibrin is the end-product of the activation of the blood's clotting factors. These clotting factors are a group of specialized blood proteins that is activated whenever an injury occurs to a blood vessel and causes bleeding. The activated clotting factors produce a cascade of events that result in the formation of fibrin.
Strands of fibrin come together to form a mesh of string-like protein at the site of the injury.
The fibrin mesh binds to platelets that have stuck together to plug the bleeding site, thus strengthening and stabilizing the platelet plug. The result is a blood clot.
In thrombosis, or abnormal blood clotting, a chief goal of treatment is to inhibit any further formation of fibrin (which is done with anticoagulation therapy) or to "dissolve" fibrin that has already been formed (which is done with fibrinolytic agents).