Cocaine and HIV do not activate platelets in whole blood when treated ex vivo.

Whole blood from healthy subjects (3 to 4 donors) was left untreated (NT) or was treated with cocaine (A), infectious NL4-3 HIV (B), ADP or Tat (C) (D), for 30, 60, and 30 minutes respectively, or as indicated, following which CD62P expression was assessed as a marker of platelet activation via flow cytometry. Treatment with cocaine, HIV, and Tat did not result in increased platelet activation. In each experiment, as indicated, treatment with 1 μL dH₂O for 30 minutes was used as a vehicle (Veh) control. Data are represented as fold change in CD62P MFI as compared to NT samples and are shown as mean ± SEM. * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001.