How Does Rat Poison Work?
To understand what these poisons do, it is necessary to have some understanding of how blood clots. A blood vessel is sort of like a pipe carrying rapidly flowing blood along its path. The pipe is lined by smooth flat cells called endothelial cells that facilitate the smooth flow of the blood. If the pipe breaks, the structure of the pipe below the lining is exposed to the flowing blood inside. From there, the sequence of events is as follows: • The blood vessel automatically constricts and spasms. This restricts the blood flowing to the damaged area and helps minimize blood loss. • The exposed pipe attracts circulating platelets, cloud-like cells that circulate ready to assist in clotting should the need arise. Platelets clump together over the tear in the blood vessel forming a plug within the first 5 minutes of the injury. This is all a good thing, but the platelets will stay in place unless a substance called fibrin can be made to bind them. • Platelets have on their surface bindin
