Fibrin

Oh, a double word box? Late on me.

First is fibrin.

Fibrin is thread-like stuff in blood that helps hold a clot together.

Okay, thread-like stuff.

And the second word is clot.

Endothelial, that's another good word.

Coagulation and fibrinolysis.

Fibrinolysis?

Mm-hmm.

Fibrin structure and microcirculation.

The goal is simple.

Convert a protein that normally floats harmlessly in your blood, called fibrinogen, into its sticky active form, fibrin.

Fibrin sticks to the vessel wall, and blood cells and platelets stick to it as they flow past.

Getting there is more complicated because it involves a chain of more than 30 chemical reactions.

It works like tipping dominoes, which we call a cascade.

Your pancreas makes something called trypsin and chymotrypsin.

Your blood makes plasmin, which breaks down fibrin, and that word, fibrin, is the key to this entire episode.

Fibrin is a sticky protein mesh.

When you get injured, your body lays it down to stop bleeding and wall off the area so repair can start.

That's a good thing.

They just pulled down the signal that was kind of going haywire instead.

So picture both sides working at once.

Fibrin-busting enzymes that break down and clear that foundational scar tissue, or that foundation that the scar tissue was built on, and then the activated cleanup protein quiets the signal telling your body to keep building more when it doesn't need to.