Abstract:
Chronic cutaneous wounds are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Prior studies demonstrated that the topical application of autologous platelet-derived growth factors can improve wound healing in chronic wounds. We therefore investigated and compared two methods to produce an autologous platelet-rich plasma and in a second step a platelet- derived growth factor combination in 21 patients with chronic wounds.
The growth factor combination was tested on levels of platelets and of the most important wound healing growth factors PDGF-AB, TGF-ß1, EGF and bFGF.
The macroscopic and microscopic effect of the stimulation of chronic wounds with the platelet-derived growth factor combination was assessed in a 28 days therapy-course.
The SORIN-method showed both technical problems and significant lower levels of platelets and PDGF-AB, TGF-ß1 and EGF compared with the SAA-method, which showed substantial levels of these growth factors. bFGF wasn´t detected in 19 of 21 platelet-derived growth factor combinations, suggesting that platelets aren´t a major storage site of bFGF.
In both treatment groups no total healing (100 epithelialization) was achieved. In the SORIN-group 7 of 10 chronic wounds had improved by wound surface reduction and an increased granulation tissue formation compared with 6 of 11 wounds in the SAA-group. Thus, the higher levels of growth factors in the SAA-group weren´t superior to the levels found in the SORIN-group.
Histologically and immunohistochemically we found an increased number of proliferating cells in the chronic wounds after 14 days of treatment, whereas the number of CD 34-positive blood vessels was unchanged.
Further clinical investigation including a higher number of patients and a longer treatment course is required for the use of both methods in the clinical setting.