Efficacy of platelet-rich plasma in the treatment of androgenetic (male-patterned) alopecia: A pilot randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Our study showed that the PRP was not effective in treating AGA of grade 4-6.

Effectiveness of Platelet-Rich Plasma for Androgenetic Alopecia: A Review of the Literature

“…Two studies noticed greater improvement in lower-grade AGA [27,32], while one noted increased improvement in higher-grade AGA [36]. Only one study, by Mapar et al [31], concluded that PRP was not effective in treating AGA through analysis of terminal and vellus hair count. However, in this study, only 2 treatments were administered, and outcomes were assessed under magnifying glass, which may not be the best method to measure results.…”

“…With the initial PRP preparation, there is a lack of consensus regarding the mode of preparation, addition of activators, centrifugation time and speed, platelet concentration attained, and volume of blood and PRP used (Table 3). Three studies, for example, used calcium chloride as an activator [12,33,35], while 2 studies used calcium gluconate [31,27], 1 study used PRGF activator [29], and 2 other studies did not specify the chemical that provided Ca 2+ [28,34]. Treatment protocols also varied in the number of sessions, time interval between treatments, administration procedure, and follow-up period (Table 2).…”

“…Each study employed a very unique treatment protocol. Of the studies reviewed, 7 mentioned the use of a control group [12,28,30,31,33,34,37], and 5 conducted the experiment without a control [27,29,32,35,36]. Five studies mentioned randomization of subjects into treatment or control groups [28,30,31,33,34], while 3 specifically mentioned that they did not randomize subjects [12,27,35], potentially introducing bias.…”

“…We elaborate on studies conducted in 2017 and 2016, which to the best of our knowledge, have not been collectively discussed in prior reviews. These studies include Anitua et al [29], Puig et al [30], Mapar et al [31], Gupta et al [32], and Alves and Grimalt [33]. Studies from 2015 (Singhal et al [12] and Gentile et al [34]), 2014 (Gkini et al [27], Khatu et al [35], Schiavone et al [36], and Cervelli et al [28]), and 2011 (Takikawa et al [37]) are also compared.…”

“…The second study was a prospective, half-head comparative pilot study carried out by Mapar et al [31] on 17 men with AGA. Investigators injected PRP or normal saline (Table 2) during 2 sessions 1 month apart.…”