Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) Preparation

This study was conducted in compliance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. This study was reviewed and approved by the Boston Children’s Hospital Committee on Clinical Investigation (protocol # AX-09-0503-4) and all subjects provided written informed consent. Healthy volunteers were allowed to enroll in the study if they were aged ≥18 years, free of aspirin or other antiplatelet medication for ≥10 days, and free of all other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for ≥ 3 days. Following a 2 mL discard, 120 mL of blood was collected from each of 5 volunteers into 1/10^th volume of acid-citrate-dextrose solution A (ACD-A). PRP was prepared as previously described [15 (link)] according to the manufacturer’s recommendation using the Harvest^® SmartPreP2 System (Harvest Technologies, Plymouth, MA, USA) with two 60 mL cartridges. The resultant PRP was pooled prior to further treatment. Complete blood cell counts were performed on the ACD-anticoagulated whole blood and the concentrated PRP in a Sysmex XN Hematology Analyzer.