Summary
The authors compared the oxygen consumption in platelets from the umbilical cord blood
of 36 healthy newborn infants with that of 27 adult subjects, before and after thrombin
addition (1.67 U/ml). Oxygen consumption at rest was 6 mμmol/109/min in adult control platelets and 5.26 in newborn infants. The burst in oxygen consumption
after thrombin addition was 26.30 mμmol/109/min in adults and 24.90 in infants. Dinitrophenol did not inhibit the burst of O2 consumption in platelets in 8 out of 10 newborn infants, while the same concentration
caused a decrease in 9 out of 10 adult subjects. Deoxyglucose inhibited the burst
in O2 consumption in newborn infant and adult platelets by about 50%. KCN at the concentration
of 10−4 M completely inhibited basal oxygen consumption but did not completely inhibit the
burst after thrombin. At the concentration of 10−3 M, it inhibited both basal O2 consumption and the burst in infants and adult subjects.
