Premature infants can suffer from an anatomical defect in which the ductus arteriosus, a blood vessel that connects the pulmonary artery and the aorta during fetal development, fails to close at birth. Katrin Echtler et al. now show that platelets are needed for closure in mice and that reduced platelet function may be clinically relevant: in a retrospective study of preterm human infants, low platelet counts were associated with the presence of an unclosed ductus arteriosus.
- Katrin Echtler
- Konstantin Stark
- Steffen Massberg
