Evaluation of the effectiveness of platelet-rich plasma in surgical epidermal wounds in rabbits

Abstract

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is the portion of the blood plasma which contains a platelet concentration above basal levels that stimulate tissue repair by means to growth factors. The aimed of this research was to evaluate the impact of PRP on skin repair upon epidermal surgical lesions. Using a scalpel, a clean epidermal incision of 5cm length was made in the interscapular region of New Zealand rabbits (n=8), and then divided in two groups . Rabbits from the group 1 (n=4) were untreated (control group), while group 2 received PRP on the surgical wound . Autologous PRP was obtained from whole blood drawn by jugular vein puncture, collected with sodium citrate anticoagulant solution, and centrifuged at 120g x 5min. One milliliter was obtained of the phase superior to the buffy coat. Biopsies from the injured tissue were collected on days 3, 7, 14 and 21 post-surgeries, and submitted to Hematoxylin-Eosin and Masson’s Trichrome staining. In conclusion, the platelets separation method allows to obtaining plasma with higher platelets concentration and reduced number of leukocytes. Additionally, the results show that therapeutic PRP administration on surgically-induced skin injury has effect on the histological features of tissue healing compared with the control group.

Keywords

• Platelet-Rich Plasma
• animal models
• regenerative medicine
• Tesaurus: DeCS/MeSH