What Are Platelets?

Platelets are biological constituents of blood, along with red and white blood cells. Unlike red and white blood cells, platelets do not have a nucleus and therefore do not qualify to be called “cells”. They are somewhat smaller than red and white blood cells.

Platelets are probably best known as components of the blood clotting system. When injury disrupts a blood vessel and causes bleeding, platelets are quickly activated and contribute to formation of a clot that stems the flow of blood. But platelets are more than just first-line responders to bleeding injury. Every platelet is also a biochemical storehouse of regulatory, signalling and growth-factor molecules that participate in recovery and healing of tissue as well as emergency response to injury. Growth-factor molecules associated with platelets include:

• Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)—promotes blood vessel growth, cell replication, skin formation.
• Transforming growth-factor-beta (TGF-b)—promotes growth of matrix between cells, bone metabolism.
• Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)—promotes blood vessel formation.
• Epidermal growth factor (EGF)—promotes cell growth and differentiation, blood vessel formation, collagen formation.
• Fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2)—promotes growth of specialized cells and blood vessel formation.
• Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)—a regulator of normal physiology in nearly every type of cell in the body.

All of these growth factors initiate and enhance physiologic processes that contribute to tissue recovery and health after injury. The growth factors are also involved in normal physiologic processes such as blood vessel formation.

What Is PRP?

PRP is blood plasma containing a concentration of platelets many times greater than occurs normally in blood. PRP is “autologous”, meaning that it comes from the patient’s own body. This is similar to the practice of having a patient donate his/her own blood before a surgical procedure, to be used in preference to blood from the hospital blood bank should a transfusion be needed. Another example is the removal and transplantation of a patient’s own skin for a plastic surgery procedure. Because PRP is autologous, it has no potential for causing a foreign-body immunologic reaction. PRP is immunologically neutral.

How PRP Is Made?

Platelets for PRP are derived from a patient’s own blood:

Blood is withdrawn from a patient’s arm by syringe, as it would be for any laboratory procedure.

The tubes containing withdrawn blood are placed in a centrifuge and spun for a period of time.

The centrifuging “spins down” the red and white blood cells and platelets and concentrates them at various levels in the tubes. Blood plasma that is rich in platelets is drawn off from the appropriate level. Plasma defined as platelet-rich plasma contains 4 to 8 times the number of platelets per cubic centimeter found in normal plasma. With a little additional preparation the PRP is ready for application.

PRP promotes hair growth from follicles by the action of platelet growth factors on hair follicle stem cells. The platelet growth factors induce follicle stem cells to shift from a dormant state to an active state that starts the process of hair production.

To Reinvigorate Dormant Hair Follicles the platelet growth factors can “wake up” dormant hair follicles and begin the production of new hair. PRP was applied after scalp skin was

Slightly injured to induce platelets to release growth factors at the injury site. Enhanced hair growth and hair diameter was noted over the next few months.

Safety, Complications, Contraindications to Use of PRP

The PRP/Stem cell treatment is completed in 1 hr, after that you can resume the normal activities. It is completely safe, painless and does not have any side effects. After the treatment no special precaution is needed.

Procedure

Step 1: Withdrawal of blood

A small amount of blood is drawn from an accessible vein in your hand after following sterile blood draw precautions.

Step 2: Preparation of Platelet Rich Plasma

At Advanced Hair Transplant Centre we make use of the Harvest SmartPReP2 Technology (Harvest Technologies GmbH, Munich, Germany). SmartPReP is the first system designed for rapid, point-of-care preparation of Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP). The SmartPReP produces a predictable Autologous Platelet Concentrate (APC+™) enriched with multiple Growth Factors. SmartPReP produces viable platelets increased 4X or greater above baseline levels; the clinical requirement needed to accelerate healing. SmartPReP provides the necessary concentrations of platelets, growth factors, and white blood cells vital for initiating and accelerating tissue repair and regeneration. The device is US FDA, CE and DCGI approved. From the time of blood draw, it takes just 15 minutes to obtain the final Platelet Rich Plasma.

Step 3: Local anesthesia

You will be lying comfortably on an operative table and the area is prepared for the procedure. The local anesthesia is injected with very fine size needle carefully and ice packs are used to make the area numb so no pain is felt during the injection. With just one small prick the whole area is made numb so no pain is felt during the procedure.

The Platelet Rich Plasma containing the reparative components is injected into the area of the scalp that is devoid of natural hair growth. This can be done essentially as an outpatient procedure. Scalp roller with 1mm fine needles is subsequently used over the treated area to stimulate the stem cells as well as to increase the blood supply leading to better hair growth.

Step4: Post procedural care

The hair is left unwashed post procedure at least for the next 24 hours with a head gear on. No bandages / dressing is required at the site if Platelet Rich Plasma is the sole protocol used.

The Return to Usual Activities

Usually there is no time lag post procedure and can resume regular activities just after the procedure.

Advantages of PRP

• Minimal downtime
• Suitable for all skin types.
• PRP technique can help to preserve hair grafts during hair transplant.
• There is no any oral and topical medications required to perform PRP treatment.
• PRP can encourage the hair growth in a wide range of hair loss conditions such as alopecia areata and androgenetic alopecia.
• PRP treatment can be combined with hair transplant or can be used as a solo treatment.

How effective is PRP?

PRP hair treatment can have drastic results, depending on the patient’s unique biology. Most patients can see result after few months. Most patient needs about 3 sessions initially (one in month) to see optimal result. PRP procedure can generate really effective result. PRP treated patients achieved the greater hair regrowth as compared to other procedures.

What conditions can PRP be used to treat?

PRP can be used to treat many medical fields such as sports medicine, dentistry, aesthetics, hair restoration, skin rejuvenation. PRP can be uses as an adjuvant treatment during dental reconstruction it can help aid in tissue regeneration providing a micro equivalent that supports growth. PRP treatment can also help to dental thickening when applied during surgery.

PRP can also be reported to improve your skin texture and skin elasticity. PRP procedure can helps to improvements in skin elasticity, smoothness, and scariness which is obtained after 3 sessions of PRP injections. PRP also have successfully incorporated into facelift procedures.

Platelet Rich Plasma Treatment Encourages Hair Growth

In PRP procedure, the platelets which are concentrated from plasma can provide healing properties and growth factors that encourage hair growth. PRP can give very promising results for hair loss patients.

Encouraging Long-Term Result

The result of PRP procedure is gradual and can vary between patients. Usually, after 3 weeks an overall improvement in skin hydration, texture and tone can be seen. Between 3 and 6 weeks, new collagen is made and new blood vessels are formed leading to an overall improvement in skin appearance. So, the Reduction of fine lines and improvements to skin elasticity will continue for several months. Research has stated that the effects of cosmetic PRP can last 12 months to two years.

PRP can also be used with Alopecia Areata

PRP treatment is increasingly being used by hair loss specialists to treat hair loss, particularly genetic hair loss. Current evidence suggests it helps 50-70 % of patients with genetic hair loss. Whether PRP helps other types of hair loss conditions is not clear.

Alopecia areata is an autoimmune condition that affects about 2 % of the world. In this condition, inflammation at the base of the hair follicle causes the hair to fall out. Patients typically have circular patches of hair loss but total hair loss is also possible. Typical treatment for alopecia areata include steroid injections to suppress the inflammation at the base of the hair follicle and this helps a large proportion of patients to regrow hair.

PRP treatment + Hair Transplant

PRP procedure can also be performed with Hair transplant treatment. Hair follicles which are being transplanted are susceptible to dehydration and injury. Combining PRP into hair graft storage solution will help preserve grafts and encourage follicles to be in an active growing state. PRP treatment during hair transplants can also help to promote tissue repair and minimize scar formation.

During FUT (Follicular Unit Transplant) technique, the surgeon cut the strip of tissue from the scalp before cutting it further into follicular units. After that surgeon creates holes on the affected bald areas of the head and place the follicular units into them. The main disadvantage of using FUT is the patient will have a long strip of scar across their head. This can become an issue for patients that want to keep their hair short. With PRP application during strip surgeries, this scar could become less noticeable.

PRP can also be useful in follicular unit extraction (FUE) procedures.Follicular Unit Extraction is the method of hair transplantation involves taking the individual follicular units from back of your head one by one by using tiny specialized machine and placed them into the area where the hairs are bald or thinning area. Encouraging results have been found in a recent PRP study using 40 FUE transplant patients. In this study, 40 male AGA patients were treated with or without PRP during their FUE procedure. One month after transplant, a greater number of PRP treated FUE hair transplant patients (12/20) experienced an increase in hair density (>75%) as compared to untreated (no PRP) FUE patients (0/20).