image: This is a colorized scanning electron micrograph of a thrombus taken from a patient with acute myocardial infarction. The thrombus is made up of a fibrin meshwork (brown) together with platelets (light purple). Erythrocytes (red) and leukocytes (green) are trapped in the network. A portion of one fiber is magnified to illustrate a stretched, unfolded fibrin molecule. This image relates to an article that appeared in the August 7, 2009, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. André E.X. Brown of the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues, was titled, "Multiscale Mechanics of Fibrin Polymer: Gel Stretching with Protein Unfolding and Loss of Water." view more
Credit: Image courtesy of André E.X. Brown, Rustem I. Litvinov, Dennis E. Discher, Prashant K. Purohit, John W. Weisel, University of Pennsylvania