Lyrics Coagulation - Dr Bigf MC

They say write what you know
So here it goes
OK so listen up
What happens when your skin is cut
And starts to bleed
How does your body make it cease?
First of all the damaged blood vessels
Tighten or constrict
And the blood cells we call platelets
Arrive to do their thing
To be precise
The damage to the blood vessels lining
Causes alot of them
To interact with collagen
They aggregate and attach
To make a platelet plug
The protein Von Willebrand Factor
Helps to shape it up
This platelet aggregation
Heralds a change in state from
A plug into a clot
A process called coagulation
It needs coagulation factors and phospholipids
So stay on track
I'll get a tad bit more specific
The liver manufactures
Coagulation factors
A team of proteins
And they all play their part
Some say there's thirteen
Or even just twelve of them
Get ready
I'm delving in
Ok let's start
One Fibrinogen
Two Prothrombin
Three Tissue Thromboplastin
Or Tissue Factor
Don't get it wrong man
Four is Ionized Calcium
Five is Labile Factor
Formerly Proaccelerin
Don't get it backwards
Six is now unassigned
Lost its stripes so we're skirting
To number seven
Stable Factor or Proconvertin
Anti Haemophilic Factor is number eight
And what is known as
Factor Nine is
Plasma Thromboplastin Component
Also known as Christmas Factor
So now we're
On to Factor Ten
It's named after Stuart-Prower
A powerful name
Factor Ten is like the president
Eleven
Plasma Thromboplastin Antecedent
Twelve Hageman Factor
A protease enzyme and
Factor thirteen's job is to
Stabilise the Fibrin
These clotting factors
Must be activated to perform
I've named many above in their preactivated form
This collection of things
Is the coagulation cascade
Intrinsic or extrinsic pathway
The latter relies on factor three
Or Tissue Factor
Not normally found inside
Our arteries or veins
The two pathways converge
After factor ten
And from this point
The common pathway is the same
Involving factors one two
Five ten and thirteen
Holds it down and
Stops the life blood from spurting
Positive feedback loops
And amplified reactions
We need that to
Stop the blood loss and that's when
We make enough Fibrin
To form a life saving clot
Connect the dots
That's how our body
Makes the bleeding stop
These and many other factors
Combine in different ways
And many of them rely on Vitamin K Specifically to activate factors
Two seven nine and ten
If I'm losing you then
Please hit rewind again
Alright then
Prothrombin activator converts Prothrombin into Thrombin and
Thrombin is converter to Fibrin
Fibrin stabilises the platelet plug
And strengthens it up
And that's what we call a clot
Stops the vessel from leaking
And losing more blood
More than a plug
A blood clot is essentially a shield
Platelet Derived Growth Factor
Helps the blood vessel
Smooth muscle cells to multiply
And helps the vessel to heal
After the damaged vessel repair
Has finally happened
The clot is digested
By an enzyme we call Plasmin
Platelets aggregating all the time
Would be senseless
So a compound called Prostacyclin prevents this
So what now?
Antithrombin Three directly inactivates Thrombin
And Thrombin itself also helps
To break the clot down
Proteins C and S help break down Fibrin
A process called fibrinolysis
Without which we could not exist
What I've outlined above
All forms the basis
Of a delicate balance
In the body called haemostasis
We need to regulate this haemostasis
Or else we get
Thrombosis in excess
And haemorrhage in deficit
So there it is
In a nutshell
There's more processes involved
That lies outside of the scope
Of just this song
There's ongoing research about
The physiology of bleeding
So please check the bibliography
For further reading
For those who want to knowledge seek
And for those that don't
I'm honestly sorry but not sorry
If I got too deep
New policy
Drop science and facts with no apology
So don't blame me
Blame Haematology probably
This might never make the club rock
But thanks to BigF
Now you understand how blood clots
What the blood clot
This might never make the club rock
Yours truly BigF
Now you tell me
How does blood clot?