Towards a biomarker for acute arterial thrombosis using complete blood count and white blood cell differential parameters in mice

There is no blood biomarker diagnostic of arterial thrombosis. We investigated if arterial thrombosis per se was associated with alterations in complete blood count (CBC) and white blood cell (WBC) differential count in mice. Twelve-week-old C57Bl/6 mice were used for FeCl(3)-mediated carotid thrombosis (n = 72), sham-operation (n = 79), or non-operation (n = 26). Monocyte count (/µL) at 30-min after thrombosis (median 160 [interquartile range 140–280]) was ~ 1.3-fold higher than at 30-min after sham-operation (120 [77.5–170]), and twofold higher than in non-operated mice (80 [47.5–92.5]). At day-1 and -4 post-thrombosis, compared with 30-min, monocyte count decreased by about 6% and 28% to 150 [100–200] and 115 [100–127.5], which however were about 2.1-fold and 1.9-fold higher than in sham-operated mice (70 [50–100] and 60 [30–75], respectively). Lymphocyte counts (/µL) at 1- and 4-days after thrombosis (mean ± SD; 3513 ± 912 and 2590 ± 860) were ~ 38% and ~ 54% lower than those in the sham-operated mice (5630 ± 1602 and 5596 ± 1437, respectively), and ~ 39% and ~ 55% lower than those in non-operated mice (5791 ± 1344). Post-thrombosis monocyte-lymphocyte-ratio (MLR) was substantially higher at all three time-points (0.050 ± 0.02, 0.046 ± 0.025, and 0.050 ± 0.02) vs. sham (0.003 ± 0.021, 0.013 ± 0.004, and 0.010 ± 0.004). MLR was 0.013 ± 0.005 in non-operated mice. This is the first report on acute arterial thrombosis-related alterations in CBC and WBC differential parameters.