Biologic Reconstruction – Greater Steele Creek and Fort Mill Communities

Background

In the 20th century, platelets were understood essentially as cells that helped to stop bleeding. Over the last 50 years, the discovery of the various growth factors released by platelets has given birth to a multitude of regenerative therapies as critical means for initiating, promoting, and expediting wound healing utilized throughout medicine and surgery.

There are a number of different types of growth factors contained in platelets. Their crucial activity in cell healing makes them especially important in regenerative medicine and improving surgical outcomes. The most active and studied growth factors released by platelets include PDGF, TGF-β, FGF, IGF, EGF, and VEGF. These signaling molecules trigger a complex cascade of intracellular events that culminate in bone formation and soft tissue healing.

Basically, applying a concentrated large number of these bone-building “orchestrators” to a wound site significantly improves the body’s normal osteo-regenerative potential.

Accelerate the Healing Process

L-PRF permits the body to take advantage of the normal healing pathways at a greatly accelerated rate. During the healing process, the body rushes many cells and cell-types to the wound in order to initiate the healing process. One of those cell types is platelets. Platelets perform many functions, including formation of a blood clot and release of growth factors into the wound. These growth factors (platelet derived growth factors PDGF, transforming growth factor beta TGF, and insulin-like growth factor IGF) function to assist the body in repairing itself by stimulating stem cells to regenerate new tissue. The more growth factors released into the wound, the more stem cells stimulated to produce new host tissue. Thus, one can easily see that LPRF permits the body to heal faster and more efficiently.

A subfamily of TGF, is bone morphogenic protein (BMP) and BMP plays a major role in the formation of new bone. This is of great significance to the surgeon who places dental implants or performs major bone grafting procedures. By adding L-PRF (thus BMP) to the procedure site, the surgeon can grow bone more predictably and faster than ever before.