What Is PRP? | Cell Therapy 101

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what is prp

WHAT IS PRP?

If you imagine cell therapy as a seed, then PRP (Platelet-rich Plasma) is the fertilizer. While it shows incredible potential to offer a wide range of benefits, it shows even more significant benefits when paired with cell therapy. Together, they could reduce pain, improve function, reduce scarring, lower blood loss and bruising, and speed up healing and recovery.

PRP is a fraction of your peripheral blood that can stimulate healing. Research shows that PRP activates recruited resident cells within your body, creating a higher likelihood of a positive response to your regenerative medicine procedure.

Platelet-rich Plasma can elicit a healing response by using platelets and numerous growth factors. Growth factors in platelet-rich plasma are directly responsible for activating adult cells and allogeneic umbilical cord fluid cells. Each growth factor is essential for wound healing and cell regeneration.

Using Platelet-rich Plasma, in effect, acts as an activator of your cells and is essential as a medium for the cells to grow and increase in and help the cells get distributed to areas in need of repair and rejuvenation. Research has shown that high amounts of activated cells reintroduced back into your body can increase the likelihood of a positive response to a cell therapy procedure.

 

What is platelet-rich plasma?

Platelet-rich plasma is made up of two elements: platelets, a particular type of blood cell that’s crucial to the body’s ability to repair, and plasma, or the liquid part of blood. In addition to their well-known capacity to clot, platelets carry growth factors that can initiate cell division and promote tissue regeneration or healing within the treated area. Platelet-rich plasma is the term used to describe blood that has more platelets than the average.

A centrifuge rapidly spins a patient’s blood sample to concentrate platelets within the plasma and separate them from the remaining blood. This process allows medical experts to make platelet-rich plasma.

 

What Could Platelet-rich Plasma Help With?

PRP has the potential to speed up recovery for numerous conditions and diseases. For instance, in Osteoarthritis, some studies indicate that patients experienced significant observational improvements in function and pain after receiving PRP injections. Here are some more conditions it could potentially help with:

Wound Healing and Chronic Wounds

Not only does Platelet-rich Plasma have the potential to enhance wound healing on its own, but it displaysincreased speed and quality of wound healing when paired with other cells.

Compared to traditional treatments of advanced wound dressing, PRP injections, and patches showed significantly improved healing outcomes for chronic wounds. At the end of treatment, patients receiving advanced wound dressings had wounds 25% – 50% of their original size. However, patients receiving PRP injections and patches had woundsless than 10% of their original size.

Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunctions

If you have trouble opening your jaw or get clicks and pain when you try, a recently published review might have an answer for you. Following up on several studies, they discovered encouraging results that showed Platelet-rich Plasma injections could help with pain, sound, and range of motion for patients with temporomandibular joint dysfunctions.

Plantation and pregnancy rate for women in this situation.

Skin Grafting

In a rare case following a car accident, doctors used PRP to assist in applying a skin graft that experienced complications. It is believed to have allowed fair skin grafting in certain situations.

Skin Rejuvenation and Youthfulness

Platelet-rich Plasma has the potential torejuvenate your skin, give you a more youthful look, and assist in healing scars, wounds, and injuries quickly and cleanly. For instance, a PRP facial could rejuvenate your skin, improve your skin tone, and reduce lines and wrinkles to help you look younger.

 

Ligament, Tendon, Joint and Muscle Injuries

Many musculoskeletal conditions and injuries may be treated with PRP injections. PRP injections can speed up the healing process, reduce pain, and permit a return to activities sooner for chronic tendon injuries, like tennis elbow or jumper’s knee, which frequently take a long time to recover.

 

Hair Loss

PRP injections have the potential to both stop hair loss and stimulate the growth of new hair in male-pattern baldness patients. Following hair transplants, PRP can help stimulate the growth of new hair.

 

And Much More

From sports injuries to chronic conditions, PRP has been shown to reduce pain, promote healing, and increase successful clinical outcomes. Contact a regenerative cell therapy provider for more information.

What is a PRP injection?

PRP injections are focused injections of platelet-rich plasma containing essential growth elements. When injected, this platelet-rich plasma can stimulate your body’s natural healing responses to heal and recover faster, like platelets help you heal from a cut.

What are the benefits of a PRP injection?

Since PRP is platelet-rich and contains essential growth factors, inflammation, and injury can heal more quickly.

Think about when you get cut. Your platelets gather at the site of the injury, forming a scab while your skin heals. Eventually, the scab falls off, the scar heals, and the pain fades. That is what happens inside the body, too, and PRP can help stimulate this process at the site of your injury or inflammation.

What is a PRP facial?

PRP facials may reduce fine lines and wrinkles without surgery as an aesthetic treatment meant to rejuvenate skin and provide a more youthful look. Because of this, PRP facials are a popular treatment for people who want to look younger and more beautiful.

What are the benefits of a PRP facial?

It can help rejuvenate the skin cells in your face and may make you feel and look younger. Collagen stimulation caused by a PRP facial can decrease fine lines and wrinkles, and the procedure could also improve skin tone and even tighten lax skin.

What are the 8 Growth factors in PRP, and how can they help me?

FUNCTIONS AND SPECIFIC RELATION TO THE SKIN:

  1. Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) – Encourages the production of collagenase by fibroblasts, which breaks down the matrix in remodeling. EGF stimulates keratinocyte and fibroblast proliferation.
  2. Transforming Growth Factor- Increases collagen formation, slowing its breakdown and encouraging chemoattraction to inflammatory cells.
  3. Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) – Endothelial cells promote angiogenesis during tissue hypoxia.
  4. Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) – Promotes angiogenesis, granulation, and epithelialization via endothelial cell, fibroblast, and keratinocyte migration, respectively.
  5. Platelet-Derived Growth Factor (PDGF) – Draws fibroblasts and macrophages to the area of damage. PDGF promotes proteoglycan synthesis and collagen.
  6. Interleukins, keratinocytes, Macrophages, endothelial cells, fibroblasts, lymphocytes, basophils, osteoblasts, and mast cells – activate fibroblast differentiation and induce collagen and proteoglycan synthesis.
  7. Colony Stimulating Factors – Stimulates macrophage and granulocyte proliferation.
  8. Keratinocyte Growth Factor – Fibroblasts promote keratinocyte migration, proliferation, and differentiation.

How do you obtain the PRP?

We take a small amount of venous blood from you (the patient) and isolate the platelet-rich plasma layer. We take whole blood through sterile venipuncture for processing. Before the procedure, the blood is transferred into a closed vacutainer tube and centrifuged to extract the PRP.

What is the procedure like for a PRP facial?

The healthcare professional performs PRP facials by preparing the patient’s face for micro-needling and then applying a wash of essential growth factors from the patient’s blood. PRP facials like these could tighten lax skin, improve skin tone, stimulate collagen growth, and smooth out fine lines and wrinkles.

Celebrities seeking to enhance their beauty have famously pursued this, as it can give them a more youthful look and feel.

Does Insurance cover PRP?

Some insurance providers cover PRP injections, but Dynamic Stem Cell Therapy offers financing and a military discount if yours doesn’t. That’s a rare thing to find, so I’d recommend checking it out if you’re interested!

 

Do PRP Injections Work?

More research is required to find out what problems PRP may help with. Thus far, studies have indicated that it expedites the healing process following surgery or damage to specific conditions. According to certain studies, PRP injections promote the healing of damaged tissue, reduce pain, increase range of motion, and alleviate symptoms associated with rotator cuff injuries and arthritic shoulders. Initial research suggests it may be helpful in specific low back pain situations.

However, the information at hand is inconsistent. After examining over 20,000 PRP injections over ten years, researchers discovered that it was unclear if the benefits outweighed the expense.

In 2021, several clinical studies concluded that PRP injections for patients with Achilles tendinitis or osteoarthritis of the knee or ankle were no more effective than a placebo.

PRP injections slow down hair loss for people suffering from male or female pattern baldness. However, it’s unclear if PRP injections for the face reduce wrinkles and sagging skin, which are apparent signs of aging.

PRP injections may not begin to function for several weeks. In certain cases, especially those on the skin or hair, observing the entire effect could take up to six months. To sustain the benefits, you may have to repeat the process for some situations, such as hair loss.

 

PRP Injection Side Effects 

Most of the time, PRP has few side effects. However, since it entails drawing blood, you should eat before the procedure if your doctor advises. It will help you to avoid dizziness after receiving PRP injections.

You should wait 48 hours to cleanse the injection site. The place where the injections were given could hurt and bruise a bit. Inform your doctor if you experience any severe or sharp pain.

The chance of an allergic reaction is minimal because your blood is used in the treatment. Some potential complications are as follows: 

  • Damaged tissue 
  • Infection 
  • Nerve injury
  • Bleeding 

You cannot have PRP injections if you have:

  • Anemia
  • Low platelet counts or abnormal platelet function
  • Infection
  • Cancer

You should only receive a plasma injection from an authorized doctor.

Who can have PRP rejuvenation?

Although PRP therapy is thought to be safe for the majority of people, treatment is not advised for those who suffer from any of these medical conditions:

  • HIV or AIDS
  • Hepatitis C
  • Any blood cancer
  • Cardiovascular disease involves using a blood thinner.
  • Skin cancer in an area that needs treatment

These factors impact your platelets and cannot produce the desired results.

Conclusion

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections help the body’s healing process in cases of tendinitis and arthritic knees and ankles. Your blood is used to calculate the shots. There is little study on their use as a cosmetic wrinkle treatment, and the evidence supporting their effectiveness is conflicting. 

FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions.

What is the success rate for platelet-rich plasma injections?

The condition of receiving treatment affects the success rate. Patients receiving PRP treatments for hair loss expressed great satisfaction with the procedure in one study. However, significant research on PRP injections for issues with the knee, ankle, and Achilles tendon showed concerns regarding the injections’ effectiveness. 

Is PRP safe?

PRP is generally considered safe because it uses the patient’s blood, reducing the risk of adverse reactions. However, as with any medical procedure, there may be mild side effects, such as swelling or bruising at the injection site. It’s essential to consult with a qualified medical professional to discuss individual health considerations and potential risks.

What conditions can PRP treat?

PRP commonly treats musculoskeletal injuries such as knee osteoarthritis, ligament sprains, and tendonitis. It is also utilized in dermatology for hair restoration, skin rejuvenation, and wound healing. The regenerative properties of PRP make it a versatile treatment option for various medical and aesthetic concerns.

How long do the effects of PRP treatment last?

The duration of PRP effects varies depending on the treated condition and individual factors. For musculoskeletal issues, relief may be long-lasting or require occasional maintenance sessions. In cosmetic procedures, results may last several months to a year, and subsequent treatments can help sustain the benefits.