Bone healing: PRP from peripheral blood or bone marrow aspirate

Objectives:  This study histomorphometrically evaluated the bone healing of critical-size defects (CSD) surgically created in rat calvaria and treated with Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP), derived from either peripheral blood (pb) or bone marrow aspirate (bma), alone or in combination with autogenous bone (AB).

Methods:  60 rats were divided into 6 groups: Group C (control), Group AB, Group PRP-pb, Group PRP-bma, Group AB/PRP-pb and Group AB/PRP-bma.  A 5 mm diameter CSD was created in the calvarium of each animal. In Group C, the defect was filled with blood clot only. In Group AB, the defect was filled with AB. In groups PRP-pb and PRP-bma, the defects were filled with PRP derived from peripheral blood or bone marrow aspirate, respectively. In groups AB/PRP-pb and AB/PRP-bma, the defects were filled with AB grafts combined with PRP-pb or PRP-bma, respectively. All animals were euthanized at 30 days postoperative. Bone Area (BA) was calculated as a percentage of the total area of the original defect. Percentage data were transformed into arccosine for statistical analysis (ANOVA, Tukey, p<0.05).

Results: Group C presented significantly less bone formation (12.34 ± 2.51%) than groups AB (48.94 ± 3.91%), PRP-pb (31.48 ± 14.05%), PRP-bma (35.38 ± 17.19%), AB/PRP-pb (60.27 ± 9.12%) and AB/PRP-bma (44.19 ± 16.49%). Bone formation in Group AB/PRP-pb was significantly greater than in Group PRP-pb.

Conclusions: Within the limits of this study, it can be concluded that all treatments promoted bone formation in CSD in rat calvaria.  Overall, the combination AB/PRP-pb demonstrated a trend towards formation of the largest bone area compared to the other groups.