Friend or foe? How the body's clot-busting system speeds up atherosclerosis
Thursday, October 30, 2008 - 14:21
in Health & Medicine
Sometimes it's hard to tell friends from foes, biologically speaking. Naturally produced in the body, urokinase plasminogen activator and plasminogen interact to break up blood clots and recruit clean-up cells to clear away debris related to inflammation. In fact, urokinase manufactured as a drug effectively clears clogged arteries by generating clot-busting plasmin from blood-derived plasminogen.