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The effect of exercise on the concentration of platelets in a platelet rich plasma preparation

University of British Columbia

Traumatic tendon injuries and tendinopathy are common problems in sports medicine practice. The active population seeks minimally invasive treatments that speed healing time. New strategies, such as platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapies, may achieve this. The use of PRP in sports medicine has been stimulated by the advancing knowledge regarding the role of growth factors (GF) in tissue repair. GF concentration is thought to increase linearly with platelet concentration (Eppley et al., 2004). Several studies are emerging with favourable outcomes in injection of PRP into the area of injury (Kon et al., 2009, Mishra & Pavelko, 2006). Some postulate that the greater the concentration of platelets in a sample the greater the healing augmentation (Smith, 2009). There is a lack of literature addressing the clinically practical issue of how to best maximize the platelet-enhanced product drawn from the patient. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of 2 exercise intensities on the concentration of platelets in a PRP preparation. The participants exercised on a cycle ergometer on three occasions. First, a V0₂max test was carried out. The participant then exercised, on two separate days, for 15 minutes at 50% (moderate exercise) or at 85% (intense exercise) of their predetermined V0₂max heart rate. Blood was drawn at baseline and within 3 minutes post exercise. The samples were prepared into a PRP preparation. The concentration of platelets was analyzed in the PRP. We found a significant increase in the concentration of platelets in the post-intense exercise PRP samples. No significant increase was seen in the moderate exercise condition. A significant effect was found for the mean differences between pre and post in the moderate versus intense exercise groups. These results indicate that intense exercise is a practical and safe way to increase the concentration of platelets in a PRP sample.

Text

2012-02-01

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/40420

Kinesiology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/