Coagulation changes following traumatic brain injury and shock.

In these studies, we have shown that coagulation and innate immunity pathways respond to trauma within minutes. Furthermore, the appearance of dysfunction of platelets as well as activation of the endothelium is rapidly manifested. Interestingly, many of these changes were attenuated by treatment with valproic acid (VPA). These most notably included coagulation and endothelial activation as well as platelet dysfunction. These results add to the growing body of evidence indicating a protective effect of VPA following trauma, and suggests that this may in part be mediated through an attenuation of the above-mentioned pathways. Furthermore, these results indicate that VPA treatment may be effective in other pathological settings such as coagulopathy following trauma or sepsis.