Comparative Analysis of the Tubes for Obtaining Platelet Enriched Plasma

Platelet enriched plasma is considered as one of the best ways to stimulate tissue repair and age associated changes correction. The widespread use of PRP therapy in various fields of medicine requires compliance with the requirements for medical devices which are used to obtain PRP. The purpose of the article is to examine the compliance of different types of PRP-tubes in terms of safety and efficacy criteria. Six types of tubes that are available in Ukrainian market were analyzed: Endoret (BTI), Plasmolifting, RegenLab, MM Medic, PlasmoMed and Ycellbio. According to the construction and protocol of PRP obtaining these tubes were subdivided into 3 groups: 1) simple tubes (BTI and MM Medic) that include only anticoagulant, 2) tubes with separating gel (Plasmolifting and RegenLab) and 3) tubes with a special construction facilitating PRP isolation. The following characteristics were taken into account during the study: the material from which the tubes were made, tube's components, type of anticoagulant, centrifugation protocol, and platelets count in plasma. The highest compliance with the international recommendations for PRP-therapy was shown for Endoret (BTI), MM Medic and Ycellbio tubes. PRP with an optimal count of platelets (1 million per mkl) can be obtained with simple tubes (MM Medic, Endoret BTI). Using tubes with a special configuration (Ycellbio) facilitated the selection of plasma, but number of platelets in PRP was excessive. One more disadvantage of this type of tubes is the systems openness and the risk of contamination of the biomaterial. The plasma obtained with gel-containing tubes (RegenLab, Plasmolifting) does not differ significantly from the whole blood in terms of platelets count blood. In addition, the presence of gel requires the increase of centrifugation acceleration that could lead to spontaneous activation of platelets. Standardization of PRP obtaining characteristics will be useful for further development of regenerative medicine technologies.