Platelet membrane lipid rafts protein composition varies following GPVI and CLEC-2 receptors activation

Lipid rafts are membrane microdomains that have been proposed to play an important role in several platelet-signalling cascades, including those mediated by the receptors Glycoprotein VI (GPVI), and C-type lectin domain family 1 member B (CLEC-2), both involved in thrombus formation. We have performed a LC-MS/MS proteomic analysis of lipid rafts isolated from platelets activated through GPVI and CLEC-2 as well as from resting platelets. Our aim was to determine the magnitude of changes in lipid rafts protein composition and to elucidate the relevance of these alterations in platelet function. A number of relevant signalling proteins were found enriched in lipid rafts following platelet activation (such as the tyrosine protein kinases Fyn, Lyn and Yes; the G proteins G(i) and G(z); and cAMP protein kinase). Interestingly, our results indicate that the relative enrichment of lipid rafts in these signalling proteins may not be a consequence of protein translocation to these domains upon platelet stimulation, but the result of a massive loss in cytoskeletal proteins after platelet activation. Thus, this study may help to better understand the effects of platelet activation in the reorganization of lipid rafts and set the basis for further proteomic studies of these membrane microdomains in platelets. Significance: We performed the first proteomic comparative analysis of lipid rafts- protein composition in platelets activated through GPVI and CLEC-2 receptors and in resting state. We identified a number of signalling proteins essential for platelet activation relatively enriched in platelets activated through both receptors, and we show that lipid rafts reorganization upon platelet activation leads to a loss in cytoskeletal proteins, highly associated to these domains in resting platelets.