Comparison of Small Volumes of Blood for the Preparation of Platelet-Rich Plasma

Abstract

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is used in variety of surgeries from oral to cosmetic and cardiac to orthopedic for therapeutic purposes. It releases the growth factors upon activation which are thought to accelerate the regenerative and healing process. We aimed to investigate the concentration of PRP obtained by using three different volumes of whole blood keeping centrifugation time and speed constant. Briefly, after taking 3 ml, 5 ml and 7 ml volumes of blood from healthy males (n=5) the samples were centrifuged at 500 RPM for 15 min. The supernatant containing platelet poor and rich plasma was obtained from the actual sample for each volume used followed by platelet count. The number of platelets in the supernatant obtained from GI (3 ml) decreased while from GII (5 ml) and GIII (7 ml) increased. In all the studied groups, no linear relationship has been noted. From the results we can conclude that small volumes of peripheral blood used for the preparation of PRP can be equally significant in platelet concentration in contrast to the large volumes in practice.