Variations among normal individuals in the cleavage of endothelial‐derived ultra‐large von Willebrand factor under flow

von Willebrand factor (VWF) freshly released from endothelial cells is normally cleaved by the ADAMTS-13 metalloprotease to prevent the direct release of these ultra-large (UL) and hyper-reactive multimers into plasma. The balance of ULVWF proteolysis may be regulated by the amount of ULVWF released and the processing capacity of ADAMTS-13. The former associates with the size of ULVWF storage pool, sensitivity of vascular endothelial cells to...