Sports Medicine New Frontiers: Platelet-Rich-Plasma (PRP) and Stem Cell Therapy

Sports Medicine is always at the forefront of innovative medical technology. Athletes are constantly striving to improve. Records are broken as humans run faster, jump higher, and strive for higher levels of performance. Athletes expose their bodies to more wear and tear as performance increases. Scientific training principles and diet have changed drastically over time. Technological breakthroughs have also impacted the rehabilitation process. 

The use of regenerative medicine has grown significantly in recent years. The popularity of Platelet-Rich-Plasma (PRP) has escalated as many high profile elite athletes from a diverse array of sports have opted for this treatment. The likes of Kobe Bryant, Rafael Nadal, and Tiger Woods garner ample press coverage when they are treated for injuries. Stem Cell Therapy becomes headlines when Peyton Manning undergoes this treatment. The goal of regenerative medicine therapies is to aid the body to heal itself. Understanding and accepting stem cell therapies for athletic injuries and sports medicine is gathering keen interest. 

Dr. Dennis Lox, www.drlox.com a Sports and Regenerative Medicine Physician in the Tampa Bay Florida area, comments that the scientific backdrop of cell signaling and inflammatory mediators has led to a new understanding of how tissues heal. This also explains why injured tissues fail to heal, and is why the aging athlete recovers and heals more slowly than his younger counterpart. 

It is felt that the use of growth factors in Platelet-Rich-Plasma (PRP) is a localized cellular response to control negative repair processes and direct healing toward a positive restorative pathway. This directional approach to control repair, is more complex in stem cells, and as such, may be more effective for healing injured tissue. The stem cells are the body's repair cells that direct the necessary patterns of cellular messenger signals to target the repair process. It is not a simple chemical reaction where two chemicals react and one outcome results. There are a myriad of complicated molecules that interact to direct the repair process, and to counter the effects of a multitude of other molecules and signals regulating the breakdown or degradation of tissue. 

Dr. Lox points out, it is overcoming the many undesirable messages that occur with injury, whereby regenerative medicine may enhance sports injury recovery. Athletes are in need of rapid recovery to avoid losing peak conditioning. Aging athletes do not heal as effectively. Finding successful measures to aid the body in the healing naturally, is desirable for athletes and in preventing degenerative arthritis. Understanding the scientific rationale for the use of Platelet-Rich-Plasma (PRP) and Stem Cell Therapy, may pave the way for the expansive role for these treatments in future directions for athletic injury. 

Source:

• http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130520-904263.html