Proteomic Characterization of Plasma Rich in Growth Factors and Undiluted Autologous Serum.

Ander Pino,Francisco Muruzabal,Mikel Azkargorta,Eduardo Anitua,Jesús Merayo-Lloves,Roberto Prado,Felix Elortza

doi:10.3390/ijms222212176

Abstract

Over the last three decades, there has been special interest in developing drugs that mimic the characteristics of natural tears for use it in the treatment of several ocular surface disorders. Interestingly, the composition of blood plasma is very similar to tears. Therefore, different blood-derived products like autologous serum (AS) and plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF) have been developed for the treatment of diverse ocular pathologies. However, scarce studies have been carried out to analyze the differences between both types of blood-derived products. In the present study, blood from three healthy donors was drawn and processed to obtain AS and PRGF eye drops. Then, human corneal stromal keratocytes (HK) were treated with PRGF or undiluted AS. Proteomic analysis was carried out to analyze and characterize the differential protein profiles between PRGF and AS, and the differentially expressed proteins in HK cells after PRGF and AS treatment. The results obtained in the present study show that undiluted AS induces the activation of different pathways related to an inflammatory, angiogenic, oxidative stress and scarring response in HK cells regarding PRGF. These results suggest that PRGF could be a better alternative than AS for the treatment of ocular surface disorders.

Highlights

This study shows that plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF) treatment inactivated or reduced the activation of several proteins involved in the pathways, whereby
Cells treated with autologous serum (AS) rather than in those cells treated with PRGF. These results suggest a close relationship between AS-treated cells and the activation of different pathways in human corneal stromal keratocytes (HK) cells related to an inflammatory response, which was mainly related to Acute Phase Response Signaling, LPS-stimulated MAPK Signaling, CCR3
The present study suggests that undiluted AS induces the activation of different pathways in HK cells related to an inflammatory, angiogenic, oxidative stress and scarring response in comparison to PRGF

Summary

Introduction

The increase in life expectancy across the last few decades is associated with the higher incidence of age-related diseases, including those pathologies affecting all tissues composing the eye from the ocular surface to the eye fundus. The physico-chemical properties of natural tears are by far more complex than artificial tears including pH, osmolarity and their complex composition of water, lipids, proteins or salts among other components [1]. The use of these treatments presents some limitations, such as the uncertain results, the elevated manufacturing costs, and the risk of disease transmission in the case of AMT, making it necessary to explore other therapeutic approaches for ocular surface tissue regeneration [6,7,8]

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion