Platelet lysate for the treatment of osteoarthritis: a systematic review of preclinical and clinical studies

Abstract

Intra-articular injection-based therapy is often used aside conservative treatment and lifestyle modifications to manage knee osteoarthritis (KO) patients. Conventional injections contain steroids and hyaluronic acid, while more recently multipotential adult stem cell, platelet-rich plasma (PRP), and platelet lysate (PL) injections have been used to promote cartilage regeneration or repair. The aim of the current study is to analyse current evidence on PL injections for the treatment of KO and to determine if these are effective and how these perform compared to other injection regimens. The databases of Scopus, Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were searched on 30 June 2023. Risk of bias was assessed using the SYRCLE tool for animal studies and Cochrane RoB 2 as well as ROBINS-I tool for human studies. Studies were included if these were in English, any year, and regarded animals with osteoarthritis (OA) or human adult patients with OA. In vitro trials and non-adult human studies were excluded. Results on OA symptom stage and severity, and pain were recorded. The research retrieved three human studies (n = 48, n = 25, n = 58) and four animal studies: one rabbit, two studies, and one rat study. PL was found to decrease KO symptoms at follow-up ≤ 1 year with respect to baseline levels and when compared to hyaluronic acid or platelet-rich plasma. Symptoms returned 6 months–1 year after the final administration, with studies showing peak efficacy at approximately 6 months. Animal studies showed clinical improvements, reduction of lameness, and partial effect on the cartilage regeneration of the seven studies, two had a high risk of bias, four were associated to some concerns, and one had low risk. A major source of bias in these studies was the use of questionnaires and scoring that could be subject to interpretation. Overall, PL was well-tolerated and showed efficacy comparable to PRP; when pain control was assessed, it showed similar efficacy compared to hyaluronic acid. These findings may support its use in clinical trials to confirm these initial findings; future research should also focus on the comparison with other non-surgical treatments, on a more detail of the potential regenerative properties, and to optimise the treatment schedule.