Abstract
Blood-derived autologous products are frequently used in both human and equine medicine to treat musculoskeletal disorders. These products, especially the platelet-rich plasma (PRP), may contain high concentrations of growth factors (GFs), and thus improve healing in several tissues. Nevertheless, the procedures for preparation of PRP are currently non-standardized. Several protocols, which are based on distinct centrifugation patterns (rotation speed and time), result in PRPs with different characteristics, concerning platelet and GFs concentrations, as well as platelet activation. The aim of the present study was to compare two different protocols for PRP preparation: protocol (A) that is based on a single-centrifugation step; protocol (B), which included two sequential centrifugation steps (double-centrifugation). The results here reported show that the double-centrifugation protocol resulted in higher platelet concentration, while leukocytes were not concentrated by this procedure. Although platelet activation and aggregation were increased in this protocol in comparison to the single-centrifugation one, the TGF-β1 concentration was also higher. Pearson’s correlation coefficients gave a significant, positive correlation between the platelet counts and TGF-β1 concentration. In conclusion, although the double-centrifugation protocol caused premature platelet aggregation, it seems to be an effective method for preparation of PRP with high platelet and TGF-β1 concentrations.
Highlights
In the last decade, hemoderivative therapeutics has become a suitable alternative to treat musculoskeletal disorders in both human and veterinary medicine
For platelet-rich plasma (PRP)-0, the mean platelet count was 494 ± 157 × 103 /μL (2.7 times the baseline), while for platelet-poor plasma (PPP)-1 and PRP-1, the platelet counts were 756 ± 228 × 103 /μL (4.2 times) and 1371 ± 423 × 103 /μL (7.6 times), respectively. These data show that higher platelet counts were obtained in the products that were prepared by the double-centrifugation protocol (PPP-1 and PRP-1), as compared to the lower values that were obtained by the single centrifugation procedure (PRP-0)
Our results have shown that the first protocol, based on a single centrifugation step, avoided premature platelet activation/aggregation, but resulted in a preparation with relatively low platelet and transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) concentrations (PRP-0)
Summary
Hemoderivative therapeutics has become a suitable alternative to treat musculoskeletal disorders in both human and veterinary medicine. The platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has shown beneficial effects on several joint diseases, which help to relieve pain and improve the articular structures (reviews in [1,2,3,4]). A systematic review on the efficacy of PRP in equine and human orthopedic therapeutics [1]. Concluded that, many equine studies yielded positive results, the same is not true for human clinical trials. Beneficial results for both species were more frequently observed in studies with a high risk of bias, which lead the authors to conclude that the use of PRP has still not shown strong positive effects in clinical scenarios.
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