Growth Factors Release From Concentrated Growth Factors: Effect of β-Tricalcium Phosphate Addition

Platelet concentrates represent a new approach to improve tissue regeneration and can be used alone or together with autogenous bone, recombinant human growth factors, and/or other biomaterials, to enhance tissue regeneration. Among platelet concentrates, concentrated growth factors (CGFs) exhibit an interesting clinical and biotechnological application potential.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro release of 4 growth factors (bone morphogenetic proteins [BMP] -2, BMP-7, transforming growth factor [TGF] -β1, and insulin-like growth factor [IGF] -1) by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique, in CGFs mixed or not with β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP), using or not the Round-up device, at different times.

CGFs were obtained from healthy volunteers, mixed or not with β-TCP, using or not the Round-up device. The release of 4 growth factors from these CGFs was then measured at 5 hours, 1, 3, 6, and 8 days, using the ELISA assay.

Comparison of the results obtained with those achieved for CGFs alone showed that BMP2 and BMP-7 release, significantly increased in CGFs mixed with Round-up and β-TCP, TGF-β1 release was similar to CGFs alone, whereas IG-1 release was lower compared with CGFs alone.

The present data suggest that β-TCP addition to CGF could enhance and improve tissue regeneration, especially bone regeneration, increasing the release of some growth factors that play an important role in osteogenesis.