The Role of Platelets in Inflammation

Platelets are anucleate circulating blood cells with canonical roles in hemostasis and thrombosis. Established and emerging data highlights that in addition to these canonical functions, platelets also have a dynamic repertoire of functions that span inflammatory and immune continuums. Moreover, in many cases there is interplay between hemostatic and inflammatory responses by platelets. In this chapter, we profile a number of inflammatory syndromes and diseases in which platelets have physiological or pathophysiological roles. We briefly review both infectious and non-infectious inflammatory settings and, where available, highlight complementary clinical and experimental systems.