Aging Affects the Efficacy of Platelet-Rich Plasma Treatment for Osteoarthritis.
Kuntal Chowdhary, Amrita Sahu, Hirotaka Iijima and 3 others
PMID 36480365WHAT IT FOUND
In mice, knee injections of platelet-rich plasma from young donors protected cartilage, while plasma from older donors did not and increased inflammation.
This laboratory work suggests age affects the quality of autologous plasma, but it does not test human outcomes.
Key findings
01In aged mice, knees treated with young male PRP showed significantly lower OARSI scores than those treated with old male PRP.
02Young PRP improved OARSI scores compared to saline, but aged PRP did not differ from saline controls.
03Knees treated with aged PRP displayed increased synovial membrane thickness, suggesting inflammation, whereas young PRP did not affect synovial thickness compared to saline.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used frozen, commercial PRP rather than fresh autologous PRP typically used in clinical practice. The sample size of PRP donors was small (n=6 per age group). Platelet concentrations in the PRP samples were not measured directly. The study was conducted in mice and cell cultures; it did not measure pain or function in humans. Mice with severe osteoarthritis were excluded, limiting generalizability to advanced human disease.
Declared interests
The authors declared no specific conflicts of interest in the provided text, but the study was supported by NIH grants. The PRP and chondrocytes were purchased from external vendors.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that older patients should not receive PRP. This study used allogeneic PRP from different donors, not the autologous PRP (patient's own blood) standard in clinical practice, and it measured cartilage structure in mice, not pain or function in humans.