Amrita Sahu, PhD, and Team Studies How Aging Affects the Efficacy of Platelet-Rich Plasma Treatment for Osteoarthritis

Amrita Sahu, PhD, assistant professor, UPMC Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, along with several colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh, UPMC, and Spaulding Rehabilitation Research Institute, published “Aging Affects the Efficacy of Platelet-Rich Plasma Treatment for Osteoarthritis” in the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. Dr. Sahu was a co-first author on this study. Kuntal Chowdhary, MD, another co-first author, was a UPMC Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation resident in training when the manuscript was published.

Despite the increased use of platelet-rich plasma in the treatment of osteoarthritis, whether and how age of the platelet-rich plasma donor affects therapeutic efficacy is unclear. In this study, male osteoarthritic human chondrocytes were treated in vitro with platelet-rich plasma from young (18-35 yrs.) or old (≥65 yrs.) donors, and the chondrogenic profile was evaluated using immunofluorescent staining for two markers of chondrogenicity, type II collagen and SOX-9. In vivo, the team used a within-subjects design to compare cartilage integrity in aged mouse knee joints injected with platelet-rich plasma from young or old individuals.

In vitro experiments revealed that platelet-rich plasma from young donors induced a more youthful chondrocyte phenotype, as evidenced by increased type II collagen (P = 0.033) and SOX-9 expression (P = 0.022). This benefit, however, was significantly blunted when cells were cultured with platelet-rich plasma from aged donors. Accordingly, in vivo studies revealed that animals treated with platelet-rich plasma from young donors displayed a significantly improved cartilage integrity when compared with knees injected with platelet-rich plasma from aged donors (P = 0.019).

Overall, the team found that injection of platelet-rich plasma from a young individual induced a regenerative effect in aged cells and mice, whereas platelet-rich plasma from aged individuals showed no improvement in chondrocyte health or cartilage integrity.

The study was supported by the Scott F. Nadler PASSOR Musculoskeletal Research Grant by the Foundation for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (Chowdhary, Sahu) and National Institute of Aging R01AG052978 (Ambrosio).

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All study contributors

Kuntal Chowdhary

Amrita Sahu

Hirotaka Iijima

Sunita Shinde

Joanne Borg-Stein

Fabrisia Ambrosio