Development and validation of a production process of platelet lysate for autologous use

Growth factors (GF) contained in platelets are a potential source to improve wound healing by the stimulation and acceleration of soft tissue and bone healing. This resulted in the idea that autologous platelet-rich plasma or platelet lysate (PL) containing high levels of GF might improve healing processes. Today platelet products are already applied in bone and maxillofacial surgery. In recent years, cosmetic surgery and facial rejuvenation procedures are growing steadily. New methods including platelet products aiming to induce non-surgical reduction of wrinkles upon topical injection and to minimize surgical risks in general are developed. Several point-of-care devices are already available on the market. However, the amount of PL obtained by these kits is far too high for certain applications in cosmetic surgery and they offer no possibility of storing the remaining material in a sterile manner. Therefore we developed a procedure for the sterile production of smaller amounts of PL in a closed system that can also be split into several products for repeated administration. The closed system was determined to be a bag system designed for an autologous blood donation of 100 ml whole blood. We set a special focus on the validation of the production procedure, mainly regarding sterility and platelet recovery. For validation 22 healthy volunteers were asked for a blood donation, which was centrifuged twice to obtain concentrated platelets (CP). A freeze-thaw cycle caused lysis of the CP to get approximately 8.48 ± 1.36 ml PL. We yielded satisfying results of 100% sterility and a platelet recovery of 36.92% ± 18.71%. We therefore conclude that the PL obtained is ready for studies comparing it with traditional treatments.