Medical Dictionary

von Willebrand factor

noun von Wil·le·brand factor \vän-ˈvil-ə-ˌbränt-\

Medical Definition of VON WILLEBRAND FACTOR

:  a protein secreted especially by endothelial cells that circulates in blood plasma as a large variable aggregation consisting usually of repeating dimers, that mediates platelet adhesion to collagen in subendothelial tissue at injury sites, that is often found complexed to factor VIII in plasma where it serves to protect it from degradation, and that is deficient or defective in individuals affected with von Willebrand's disease—called also VW factor

Biographical Note for VON WILLEBRAND FACTOR

Willebrand, Erik Adolf von (1870–1949), Finnish physician. He described von Willebrand's disease first in 1926 and again in 1931 in a follow-up article.

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