Treatment of Muscle Injuries by Local Administration of Autologous Conditioned Serum: A Pilot Study on Sportsmen with Muscle Strains

Abstract

Muscle injuries represent a major part of sports injuries and are a challenging problem in traumatology. Strain injuries are the most common muscle injuries after contusions. These injuries can lead to significant pain and disability causing time to be lost to training and competition. Despite the frequency of strain injuries the treatment available is limited and is generally not sufficient to enhance muscle regeneration efficiently when fast resumption of sport activity is a primary target. A number of growth factors play a specific role in regeneration and it has been proven that a previously described method of physically and chemically stimulating whole blood (to produce autologous conditioned serum) induces concentration increases in FGF-2, HGF, and TGF-beta1. A preliminary study was conducted on muscle strain injuries in professional sportsmen receiving either: 1. autologous conditioned serum (ACS) or 2. Actovegin/Traumeel treatment as control. Assessment of recovery from injury was done by: 1. sport professional's ability to participate to 100 % under competition conditions in their respective sport and 2. MRI analysis. A significant difference in the recovery time from injury was demonstrated: 16.6 +/- 0.9 in the ACS treated instead of 22.3 +/- 1.2 (mean +/- SEM) days in the Actovegin/Traumeel control group (p = 0.001). MRI analysis supported the observed acceleration of the lesion recovery time. We conclude that ACS injection is a promising approach to reduce the time to recovery from muscle injury.

Platelet-rich plasma for muscle injuries: game over or time out?

“…Over a decade ago, a pilot study was conducted among 18 professional sportsmen with moderate muscle strain injuries who were treated with ACS within 2 days of injury; injections were repeated every second day until complete recovery (mean treatments=5.4) [26]. ACS was prepared from patients' whole blood using a centrifugation technique that yielded significant increases in FGF-2 (750 %), TGF-B (31 %), HGF (hepatocyte growth factor) (35 %), and IL-1Ra (interleukin-1 receptor antagonist) (600 %).…”

Return to sport after muscle injury

“…The authors concluded that PRP is helpful for decreasing pain in the immediate postinjury phase and may be helpful in facilitating early rehabilitation. Wright-Carpenter et al conducted a controlled trial where professional athletes with grade 2 or moderate muscle strains were treated with a series of autologous conditioned serum (ACS) [48]. Those in the ACS group had shorter time to return to sport (16.6 days compared to 22.3 days in control group), though this study is limited by lack of randomization and lack of blinding.…”

Platelet rich plasma: traitement des tendinopathies chroniques? Revue de la littérature

“…Depuis une vingtaine d'années, plusieurs recherches in vitro ont permis de comprendre l'action plaquettaire en tant que médiateur ou activateur de la cicatrisation de différents tissus [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. La réparation tissulaire se déroule classiquement selon trois étapes principales :…”

“…Certains travaux, essentiellement in vitro, soulignent les propriétés réparatrices des plaquettes qui, effectivement, présentent la capacité d'accélérer la cicatrisation de différents tissus : os, muscles et tendons [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Le plasma enrichi en plaquettes (plateletrich plasma ou PRP) a déjà été utilisé en chirurgie maxillofaciale, en stomatologie ou en chirurgie orthopédique [9,10].…”