Effects of platelet concentrate on palatal wound healing after connective tissue graft harvesting

Platelet concentrate (PC) is known to contain growth factors that stimulate cellular proliferation and differentiation. In this double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study, the objective was to determine whether PC accelerated connective tissue graft (CTG) wound healing and maintained donor site tissue thickness.

Twenty healthy adult subjects with multiple bilateral gingival recessions were treated with CTGs and PC combined with CTGs. The donor sites were treated with PC and placebo. Clinical wound healing was observed for an average of 6 weeks. Biopsies were taken from donor sites and submitted for histology and immunohistochemical analysis for type I and III collagens. Palatal tissue thickness, post-surgical complications, and pain level were evaluated. Wilcoxon, Cronbach, one-sample t, and paired-sample t tests were used to assess statistical significance at P <0.05.

PC-treated palatal donor sites were 1.10 mm thicker than control sites. PC-treated recipient sites showed accelerated clinical healing compared to controls. PC did not accelerate donor site clinical healing. No significant statistical differences in complication occurrence and perceived pain levels were found between control and PC-treated sites. Biopsy samples revealed that during healing, PC-treated sites contained lower concentrations of inflammatory cells, more type I mature collagen, and less type III immature collagen than control sites.

PC may accelerate wound healing and hasten the regeneration of palatal donor tissue. PC did not influence complication occurrences or mediate pain level. PC has the potential to shorten the treatment time for patients who need multiple CTG procedures.