Previous studies have demonstrated impaired adhesion of platelets to the subendothelium in von Willebrand's disease. These studies were performed by circulating (in a closed system) citrated whole blood through a chamber containing everted segments of rabbit aorta from which the endothelium had been removed by balloon catheter. The average wall shear rate was 800 sec-1, and the perfusion time was 10 min. In the present study we measured the interaction of platelets with subendothelium in native (nonanticoagulated) blood, using a recently described technique in which the vessel segments are perfused with directly sampled venous blood. The system was open; that is, the blood was not recirculated. We used blood flow rates of 20, 40, and 50 ml/min, which correspond to calculated shear rates of 1300, 2600, and 3300 sec-1 and perfusion times of 3, 2, and 2 min, respectively. For comparison, parallel studies at 1300 sec-1 were also obtained with citrated blood. In normal subjects, at a shear rate of 1300 sec-1, platelet adhesion was less in native blood than in citrated blood, but thrombus formation was greater. Platelet adhesion in five patients with von Willebrand's disease was decreased in both citrated and native blood. The magnitude of the adhesion defect was strongly dependent on the shear rate. Thus, in citrated blood studied at a shear rate of 1300 sec-1, adhesion was 75% less than in normal subjects, whereas in previous studies at 800 sec-1 the reduction in adhesion was 29%. In native blood, adhesion in von Willebrand's disease was normal at a shear rate of 1300 sec-1, whereas 53% and 77% reductions in adhesion were obtained at shear rates of 2600 and 3300 sec-1, respectively. The latter shear rates studied, adhesion of platelets in native blood was also decreased in the Bernard-Soulier syndrome but was normal in hemophilia and afibrinogenemia. Our findings with native blood provide further evidence that impaired adhesion of platelets to the vessel wall accounts for the hemostatic defect in von Willebrand's disease. In addition, this adhesion defect is shear rate-dependent.