Blood-platelet-rich plasma - PRP: Natural cell product made from autologous blood to support wound healing

Blood platelet-rich plasma (also platelet-rich plasma, PRP) is a cell product that stimulates wound healing and is obtained exclusively from your own blood.

Compared to the more advanced and complex stem cell-based therapies such as stem cell secretoma, PRP is easy to obtain (venous blood collection), quick to produce and therefore less costly.

It contains many beneficial growth factors that have been shown to be effective in many different applications in orthopedics, cosmetics or wound healing. PRP is currently often used by dentists when placing implants and in the field of osteoarthritis treatment by orthopedic surgeons, provided they have permission to do so.

Platelets - Platelets contain growth factors that are responsible for:

• Recruitment and activation of other (stem) cells at the injured site for accelerated healing
• increased production of collagen (connective tissue)
• Initiation of blood vessel formation (antigen)
• Induction of cell differentiation
• Induction of bone mineralization
• Induction of tissue regeneration
• Induction of tissue rejuvenation
• Induction of tissue adhesion

Production of PRP from autologous blood

In order to obtain autologous, i.e. patient's own PRP, we take blood from a vein in your arm with prp tubes. This is concentrated in a short and safe closed process. Sampling and quality control are completed after only 30 minutes and the PRP can be applied.

PRP: Successful use in many orthopedic diseases

Sooner or later, orthopedic problems will affect almost everyone in their life. Currently available drugs for this case are very limited and usually focus on pain relief, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and cortisone. Ultimately, when medication can't help, surgery is the only option left.

But even these often only have a limited lasting effect. Therefore, stem cell-based therapies could fundamentally change this situation: PRP is a relatively simple precursor to stem cell-based therapies with a long history of success peppered with successful clinical studies. Some of the results are summarized here as examples:

P injections consist of concentrated platelets isolated from the patient's own blood.

This reduces pain and supports the natural healing process.

Injections are usually given into damaged cartilage and tendons.

PRP can rebuild tissue and regenerate it. It can be used for common tendon injuries such as tennis elbow or Achilles tendonitis.

It can also be used to stimulate the healing of cartilage in osteoarthritis or other diseases.

Therapy with PRP injections can sometimes require several applications. In some patients, however, a noticeably strong healing process can already take place after an injection.

Typical uses for PRP treatment include:

• Osteoarthritis of the knee, hip, spine and shoulder
• Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis)
• ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) Injuries
• Achilles tendonitis
• Broken bones
• Chronic inflammation of tendons and cartilage throughout the body

New, less documented areas of application for PRP are hair loss and baldness. Here PRP is used to stimulate hair follicles and thus reduce or prevent hair loss.