Short term storage stability at room temperature of two different platelet-rich plasma preparations from equine donors and potential impact on growth factor concentrations.

BACKGROUND: The increasing interest in platelet-rich plasma (PRP) based therapies is as yet accompanied by inconsistent information regarding nearly all aspects of handling and application. Among these storage stability of processed platelet-rich products may be the basis for a more flexible application mode. The objective of this study was (1) to estimate the storage stability of growth factors platelet derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB) and transforming growth factor ß1 (TGF-ß1) in both, a single-step softspin centrifugation-based pure-PRP (P-PRP, ACP®), and a gravity filtration system-based leukocyte-rich-PRP (L-PRP, E-PET), over a six hours time span after preparation at room temperature and (2) to identify possible factors influencing these growth factor concentrations in an equine model.

RESULTS: Growth factor concentrations remained stable over the entire investigation period in L-PRP as well as P-PRP preparations revealing a mean of 3569 pg/ml PDGF-BB for E-PET and means of 1276 pg/ml PDGF-BB and 5086 pg/ml TGF-ß1 for ACP®. Pearson correlations yielded no significant impact of whole blood platelet (PLT), white blood cell (WBC) and red blood cell (RBC) counts on resulting cytokine values. In case of ACP® no significant dependencies between PLT, WBC and RBC counts of the processed platelet-rich product and resulting cytokine content occurred with exception of TGF-ß1 concentrations showing a strong correlation with the WBC content. PDGF-BB content of E-PET preparations showed a strong positive correlation with PLT and a strong negative with WBC of these preparations but not with RBC.

CONCLUSIONS: L-PRP ad modum E-PET and P-PRP ad modum ACP® are applicable over at least a six hours time span at room temperature without loss of growth factor content. Based on the results of this study factors influencing the resulting growth factor concentrations still remain questionable. Additional studies implicating a further standardization of preparation protocols are necessary to identify consistent impact on cytokine content after PRP processing.