Industrial-scale processing of activated platelet-rich plasma from specific pathogen-free pigs and its effect on promoting human hair follicle dermal papilla cell cultivation

Abstract

Abstract Due to the controversial nature of fetal bovine serum (FBS) production and safety concerns, there is a major interest in finding a potential FBS replacement, such as human platelet-rich plasma (PRP). However, traditional PRP production is largely limited by yield and is unsuitable for large-scale production. In this study, our first aim is to optimize the porcine PRP production protocol, and render it capable of manufacturing a large amount of porcine PRP that is suitable as an FBS replacement. Additionally, our secondary aim is to determine the effects of porcine PRP on human follicle dermal papilla cells (HFDPCs). In our process, the platelets are separated and concentrated via small- (with a capacity of 2.4 L/h) or large-scale preparations (with a capacity of 200–500 L/h). The porcine PRP is activated using a combination of collagen, thrombin, and calcium chloride, resulting in three distinct PRP formulations. Growth factor levels and stabilities of PRP under different treatments were measured using ELISA, MTT and real-time PCR assays. Our results showed that porcine PRP has higher growth factor levels than FBS, and is stable during freeze-drying and surfactant treatments, whereas HFDPCs treated with freshly prepared or freeze-dried PRP showed no significant difference in proliferation compared to FBS. In conclusion, our study is the first to confirm the commercial viability of porcine PRP as an FBS replacement and hair growth promoter.