Similar platelet activation and subsequent thrombus formation has been attributed to interactions between podoplanin-expressing perivascular cells and circulating platelets in murine models of deep vein thrombosis (Payne et al., 2017) and Salmonella infection (Hitchcock et al., 2015), and in patients with podoplanin-positive brain tumours (Riedl et al., 2017). Here, PDPN is linked to deep vein thrombosis.