Dr Steven Sampson of the Orthohealing Center will lecture on PRP & emerging orthobiologic therapies with Dr Chris Marker in Palm Springs, CA at the 20th Annual Practical Applications in Sports Medicine. The Title presentation is PRP and advancements in treating Osteoarthritis. Hundreds of orthopedic health care professionals will gather to learn about emerging concepts in orthopedic care.
Recently Advance For Medical Laboratory Professionals featured PRP as a Novel Treatment. Dr Steven Sampson & Dr Rocco Monto were featured. Following prolific athletes receiving PRP therapy there is increased public awareness about this emerging treatment. Soon more & more studies will surface to determine exactly what role PRP is indicated for and has the best potential.
Dr Steven Sampson will address Physicians in Hiroshima at the Japanese Society for Regenerative Medicine in March 2009. Dr Sampson will discuss research findings from a knee arthritis study using Platelet Rich Plasma. The research is pending publication and is the first of it’s kind to be published in a reputable orthopaedic journal. Using this encouraging data, Dr Sampson is planning a multi-center study on PRP for knee osteoarthritis. Doctors in Japan are expressing an interest in orthobiologics to provide cutting edge therapies to their patients. 
A new article on PRP was published in the Journal of Musculoskeletal Medicine from the Arthritis & Osteoporosis Center of Maryland. The piece discusses Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) and stem cells for management of osteoarthritis. The authors describe a synergistic phenomenon when combining the stem cells with PRP. The platelets help direct the stem cells to proliferate and coordinate repair of damaged cells. I expect more & more literature to emerge on the use of PRP & stem cells to address common orthopaedic injuries.
http://jmm.consultantlive.com/display/article/1145622/1427681
At The Orthohealing Center we will be publishing our data on Knee Osteoarthritis treated with PRP very soon, stay tuned.
With the election of a new president, there will certainly be change. Recently in the Washington Post & CBS news, it was reported that Barack Obama intends to reverse the Bush policy on stem cell research. It is believed amongst the scientific community that stem cells offer abundant potential for challenging conditions including parkinson’s disease and osteoarthritis among others. However, adult rather than embryonic stem cells are available with current technology and have little controversy associated with their use. The only problem is that harvesting them requires inserting a metal rod into the bone marrow to extract it. Hopefully, soon we will be able to draw adult stem cells from peripheral blood (drawing blood from the arm & processing stem cells). Clearly the orthobiologic field is growing, and we will learn more about the promise of stem cells in the near future whether adult or embryonic cells are utilized.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/09/politics/washingtonpost/main4586410.shtml
My PRP review article is now published in the Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine. http://www.springerlink.com/content/5708408818n30275/ The online version is available, and the printed version is coming soon. The article includes nearly 50 literature sources and provides a comprehensive overview regarding platelet rich plasma usage in orthopaedics and sports medicine. Also, the review discusses the promising realm of orthobiologics and describes experiences with using platelet rich plasma for cartilage disorders and osteoarthritis.
I have been conducting research on arthritis with encouraging results so far. I am planning on collaborating with other leading physicians and publishing many more articles to advance the field of orthobiologics.
We are beginning clinical trials of Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) injections in patients suffering with knee arthritis. There is an increasing “boomer” population with earlier knee arthritis as a result from prior trauma including meniscal tears & arthroscopies with scarring and cartilage loss etc. This phenomenon is termed “chondropenia.” We are searching for non-invasive alternatives to knee replacements in these active individuals.
Patients will receive a series of injections under ultrasound guidance to insure proper placement. X-rays and MRI’s, are taken into account & cartilage growth will be measured on serial ultrasound evaluations. Multiple pain score measures will be recorded as well. We plan on publishing this data so that the medical community can learn more about the promising role of PRP injections in cartilage disorders.
A growing number of physicians are using musculoskeletal ultrasound to guide various injections. As a leading imaging technique in Europe, ultrasound is safe, economic, convenient, & effective in diagnosing many injuries. The technology has dramatically improved and allows us to visualize nerve & tendon fibers. While the quality is not quite MRI caliber, ultrasound allows for dynamic (motion studies). In other words, ultrasound allows functional evaluation of an injury with movement, whereas MRI takes a still image. Also, ultrasound has color doppler that shows areas of blood flow changes (called neo vascularization). This allows us to deliver the PRP within a millimeter of the target site, or even discover other regions that are affected. 
Ultrasound technology continues to grow. I just upgraded to this Sonosite portable machine with color doppler.
In a recent study from October 2007, a group from China was the first to document platelet rich plasma’s ability to support chondrogenesis (cartilage cell growth). They took cartilage from the rabbit’s ear, & mixed it with PRP and calcium chloride & thrombin (to form a matrix). Two months later, hard knobbles were found and seen on MRI, as well as histological analysis (cellular) and staining confirmed cartilage growth. Interestingly, there was no cartilage growth with the control group that received PRP alone. This study demonstrated successful formation of new cartilage with an injectable graft using PRP and cultured chondrocytes.
A European Study from Oct 07′ by Anitua & Sanchez et al. injected 10 osteoarthritic patients with PRP & studied the cellular effects of PRP. They found an increase in hyaluronic acid concentration, balancing cell proliferation (angiogenesis). However, there was no effect on IL 1-B, which generally plays a role in osteoarthritis. This information gives us insight into how PRP may potentially benefit arthritis.
Platelet-released growth factors enhance the secretion of hyaluronic acid and induce hepatocyte growth factor production by synovial fibroblasts from arthritic patients
http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/kem234v1
It’s important that we better understand the mechanism that PRP may potentially benefit arthritis. New insights may direct more specific treatments in the exciting realm of Biologics.
