The influence of platelet-rich plasma on myogenic differentiation

The ability to expand and direct both precursor and stem cells towards a differential fate is considered extremely advantageous in tissue engineering. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) possesses a milieu of growth factors and cytokines, which have the potential to have either a differentiative or proliferative influence on the cell type tested. Here, we investigated the effect of PRP on C2C12 myoblasts. A range of PRP concentrations in differentiation media was used to determine whether a concentration dependence existed, while PRP embedded in fibres of aligned electrospun polydioxanone and polycaprolactone was used to determine whether this presence of fibres would cause any differences in response. In both cases, it was found that late myogenic markers were suppressed after 7 days in culture. However, an early differentiation marker, MyoD, was upregulated during this same time period. The results from this study represent the ability of PRP to have an influence over both myogenic proliferation and differentiation, a factor which could prove useful in future studies involved with skeletal muscle tissue engineering.