Platelet-Rich Plasma as Xenofree-Growth Factor for Mesenchymal Stem Cells Culture

Abstract

Stem cell-based therapy is currently believed to be the future of medicine. Stem cells have considerable therapeutic, and biotechnological benefits in treating various progressive, and end-state diseases. The type of stem cell that is widely used in cell-based therapy is mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). MSCs have some advantages, including being found in various body tissues, being relatively easy to isolate, having rapid proliferation ability, high differentiation capacity, and the ability to migrate to the injured areas. In stem cell-based therapy, the MSCs that will be used mostly need to be expanded first by culturing the cells. Both during the culture, and processing cells, often use supplements in the form of serum-containing various growth factors, and cytokines. The serum that is often used is a fetal bovine serum (FBS). However, regarding clinical applications, and Good Manufacturing Practices, the presence of animal elements should be avoided. FBS is not following the principles of Good Manufacturing Practice, because it can affect the safety, and efficacy of cell-based therapies. Therefore, alternative supplements are needed for cultures that are free from animal serum elements. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a plasma fraction derived from blood with a platelet concentration of 3-5 times higher than in blood. Several studies have shown that PRP contains various growth factors that can increase the proliferative, and differentiation capacity of MSCs which is equivalent to, or even better than FBS. PRP also has the advantage that it can be an autologous, or allogeneic product from human peripheral blood, so it is free from animal substances. Therefore, in the future PRP has great potential as an alternative to FBS both in culture expansion, and in MSCs processing.