The Impact of Duration and Force of Centrifugation on Platelet Content and Mass in the Preparation of Platelet-Rich Plasma.

PURPOSE: Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is an autologous prepared plasma enriched with platelets and obtained after a centrifugal separation and aggregation procedure. However, the optimized preparation protocol for PRP is still controversial and there are no standardized preparation protocols. The aim of this study is to show the effect of time and force of the centrifugation on the concentrations of platelets and to optimize the effective PRP preparation protocol. METHODS: For the study, whole blood was drawn into 24 different 6-ml standard tubes containing 0.6 ml anticoagulant citrate dextrose solution-formula A. The samples were centrifuged separately at forces of 45×g, 180×g, 400×g, 725×g, 1130×g and 1630×g for 5, 10, 15 and 20 min. Every sample was analyzed, and a comparison was made between all groups. RESULTS: No significant difference was observed in terms of platelet concentration, mean platelet volume or platelet mass between all groups (p > 0.05). The mean ± SD of platelet mass in baseline is 1890 ± 134 × 103 fL/µL. The mean ± SD of platelet mass in the high centrifugal force of 1630×g was 3395 ± 564 × 103 fL/µL, 2638 ± 425 × 103 fL/µL, 2355 ± 449 × 103 fL/µL and 2109 ± 41 × 103 fL/µL over times of 5, 10, 15 and 20 min, respectively. The mean ± SD of platelet mass in the low centrifugal force of 45×g was 2002 ± 1623 × 103 fL/µL, 2491 ± 1591 × 103 fL/µL, 2611 ± 876 × 103 fL/µL and 3003 ± 511 × 103/µL over times of 5, 10, 15 and 20 min, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Platelets should be evaluated with platelet mass not including platelet concentrations alone, but also with mean platelet volume, which symbolizes the size of platelets while comparing platelet-rich plasma preparation protocols and kits. This could be a new starting point for comparison of PRP for all applications in the literature. All centrifugation forces and times could produce biologically reactive PRP. It may be only suggested that if high acceleration force is used, low durations should be selected, or if low acceleration force is used, long time of centrifugation should be selected. NO LEVEL ASSIGNED: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .