Autologous PC injections or
Platelet
Concentrated is a by-product of blood (plasma) that is rich in
platelets. Until now, its use has been confined to the hospital
setting. This was due mainly to the cost of separating the platelets
from the blood and the large amount of blood needed to produce a
suitable quantity of platelets. New technology permits the doctor to
harvest and produce a sufficient quantity of platelets from only 50
cc of blood drawn from the patient while they are in the office
setting.
PC
(Platelet
Concentrated)
allows the body to take advantage of the normal healing pathways at
a greatly accelerated rate. During the healing process, the body
rushes many cells and cell-types to the injected area in order to
accelerate the healing process. One of those cell types is
platelets. Platelets perform many functions, including formation of
a blood clot and release of growth factors (GF) into the diseased or
arthritic and injured sites. These GF (platelet derived growth
factors PDGF, insulin-like growth factor ILGF and transforming
growth factor beta TGF) function to assist the body in repairing
itself by stimulating stem cells to regenerate new tissue. The more
growth factors released sequestered into the damaged cells, the more
stem cells stimulated to produce new host tissue. Thus, one can
easily see that PC and its applications for injection in to the
Joints and Tendons to improve osteoarthritis
and sports injuries. Currently PC has been used for pain and
arthritis of Knee, Shoulder, Spine, Hip, Ankle, Wrist and Elbow at
The Center For Regenerative Medicine.
A
subfamily of PC, is mesenchymal stem cells. The MSC (these
stem cells are different from the embryonic stem cells. These
stem cells are contained within each individual and are derived from
patient self) have been shown to
be multipotent, having potential of becoming ,Cardiac , Nerve,
hepatocytes (liver cells), Chondrocytes (cartilage
cells) , as well as vascular cells (angiogenesis) This is of great
significance to the Orthopedic Regenerative physician whose goal is
improvement of arthritis and sports injuries.
Platelet Concentrated, is
currently widely used and globally accepted as an effective
treatment modality for various applications and chronic non-healing
wounds.
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