Giulio Bizzozero in 1882 studied the blood of amphibians microscopically in vivo. He named Schultzes spherules (It.) piastrine: little plates. An article in Scientific American suggests Bizzozero proposed the name Blutplattchen. William Osler observed platelets and, in published lectures in 1886, called them a third corpuscle and a blood plaque; and described them as "a colorless protoplasmic disc". James Wright examined blood smears using the stain named for him, and used the term plates in his 1906 publication but changed to platelets in his 1910 publication which has become the universally accepted term.The term thrombocyte (clot cell) came into use in the early 1900s and is sometimes used as a synonym for platelet; but not generally in the scientific literature, except as a root word for other terms related to platelets (e.g. thrombocytopenia meaning low platelets). : v3  The term thrombocytes are proper for mononuclear cells found in the blood of non-mammalian vertebrates: they are the functional equivalent of platelets, but circulate as intact cells rather than cytoplasmic fragments of bone marrow megakaryocytes. : 3 In some contexts, the word thrombus is used interchangeably with the word clot, regardless of its composition (white, red, or mixed). In other contexts it is used to contrast a normal from an abnormal clot: thrombus arises from physiologic hemostasis, thrombosis arises from a pathologic and excessive quantity of clot. In a third context it is used to contrast the result from the process: thrombus is the result, thrombosis is the process. References


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Hydroxyurea lay dormant for more than fifty years until it was studied as part of an investigation into the toxicity of protein metabolites. Due to its chemical properties hydroxyurea was explored as an antisickling agent in the treatment of hematological conditions. One common mechanism for synthesizing hydroxyurea is by the reaction of calcium cyanate with hydroxylamine nitrate in absolute ethanol and by the reaction of salt (i.e. sodium or potassium) cyanates and hydroxylamine hydrochloride in aqueous solution. Hydroxyurea has also been prepared by converting a quaternary ammonium anion exchange resin from the chloride form to the cyanate form with sodium cyanate and reacting the resin in the cyanate form with hydroxylamine hydrochloride. This method of hydroxyurea synthesis was patented by Hussain et al. (2015). Pharmacology
Hydroxyurea is a monohydroxyl-substituted urea (hydroxycarbamate) antimetabolite. Similar to other antimetabolite anti-cancer drugs, it acts by disrupting the DNA replication process of dividing cancer cells in the body. Hydroxyurea selectively inhibits ribonucleoside diphosphate reductase, an enzyme required to convert ribonucleoside diphosphates into deoxyribonucleoside diphosphates, thereby preventing cells from leaving the G1/S phase of the cell cycle. This agent also exhibits radiosensitizing activity by maintaining cells in the radiation-sensitive G1 phase and interfering with DNA repair.Biochemical research has explored its role as a DNA replication inhibitor which causes deoxyribonucleotide depletion and results in DNA double strand breaks near replication forks (see DNA repair).