Monocyte procoagulant activity in Whipple's disease

Abstract

We have studied the expression of procoagulant activity by the circulating mononuclear cells of four patients with Whipple's disease. There was a spontaneous expression of procoagulant activity in two patients with active untreated Whipple's disease. This activity was shown to originate in the monocyte fraction of the mononuclear cells and was demonstrated to cleave prothrombin directly. This prothrombinase activity was not Factor Xa, because it was not neutralized by anti-Factor X serum and was not inhibited by an established panel of Factor Xa inhibitors. The prothrombinase activity was not expressed by the monocytes of these patients following 8 weeks of antibiotic therapy, by which time the patients' symptoms resolved, and was not found in two patients previously treated for Whipple's disease who were in clinical remission or in normal subjects. Serial studies in one patient with active disease showed that monocytes failed to express increased prothrombinase within 2 weeks of antibiotic therapy. A second procoagulant activity was produced in response to endotoxin (LPS) by cells from controls and patients with Whipple's disease and was identified as thromboplastin. These observations suggest that circulating monocytes of patients with active Whipple's disease are endogenously stimulated to express prothrombinase activity, which may contribute, at least in part, to the pathophysiology of this condition.