Use of a collagen-platelet rich plasma scaffold to stimulate healing of a central defect in the canine ACL

✍ Scribed by Martha M. Murray; Kurt P. Spindler; Clint Devin; Brian S. Snyder; John Muller; Masaya Takahashi; Percy Ballard; Lillian B. Nanney; David Zurakowski

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 414 KB
• Volume: 24
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0736-0266
• DOI: 10.1002/jor.20073

✦ Synopsis

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) of the knee fails to heal after primary repair. Here we hypothesize that a beneficial biologic repair response can be induced by placing a collagen-platelet rich plasma (collagen-PRP) material into a central ACL defect. A collagen-PRP scaffold was used to treat a central ACL defect in vivo. In the first experiment, the histologic response in treated and untreated defects was evaluated at 3 (n ¼ 5) and 6 weeks (n ¼ 5). In the second experiment, biomechanical testing of the treated ligaments (n ¼ 8) was performed at 6 weeks and compared with the results of biomechanical testing of untreated defects at the same time-point (n ¼ 6). The percentage filling of the defects in the treated ACLs was significantly higher at both the 3-and 6-week time-points when compared with the untreated contralateral control defects (50 AE 21% vs. 2 AE 2% at 3 weeks, and 43 AE 11% vs. 23 AE 11 at 6 weeks; all values mean AE SEM. Biomechanically, the treated ACL defects had a 40% increase in strength at 6 weeks, which was significantly higher than the 14% increase in strength previously reported for untreated defects ( p < 0.02). Placement of a collagen-PRP bridging scaffold in a central ACL defect can stimulate healing of the ACL histologically and biomechanically.