Natural Degradation or Clearance
Unfractionated heparin has a half-life of approximately one to two hours after infusion, whereas low-molecular-weight heparin has a half-life that is about four times longer. Lower doses of heparin have a much shorter half-life than larger doses of heparin. Heparin binding to macrophage cells is internalized and depolymerized by the macrophages. Heparin also rapidly binds to endothelial cells, which precludes the binding to antithrombin that results in anticoagulant action. For higher doses of heparin, endothelial cell binding will be saturated, such that clearance of heparin from the bloodstream by the kidneys will be a slower process.
Read more about this topic: Heparin
Famous quotes containing the words natural and/or degradation:
“They had their fortunes to make, everything to gain and nothing to lose. They were schooled in and anxious for debates; forcible in argument; reckless and brilliant. For them it was but a short and natural step from swaying juries in courtroom battles over the ownership of land to swaying constituents in contests for office. For the lawyer, oratory was the escalator that could lift a political candidate to higher ground.”
—Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“We found nothing grand in the history of the Jews nor in the morals inculcated in the Pentateuch.... I know of no other books that so fully teach the subjection and degradation of woman.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)