L-PRF Enrichment with Nanohydroxiapatite: An In Vitro Proof of Concept Study

Nowadays platelet concentrates (PCs) show interesting potential in oral surgery for soft tissue healing promotion. However, inductive properties for bone formation remains still controversial. Recently, numerous studies explored the merging of two different tissue healing inducing agents: PCs with osteoinducing agents or scaffolds or antiresorptive drugs. Research trend looks towards the amelioration of the inductive properties of PCs, mainly towards bone regeneration. This paper aims to evaluate i) the durability of the pristine L-PRF membranes in dissolution assay; ii) the opportunity of coupling the obtained membranes with an osteoconductive molecule, such as nanohydroxyapatites (nHAp). Thus, the durability of pristine membrane in SBF was tested. At each time point, one sample was analyzed with SEM; image processing revealed an average fiber diameter of 0.103 ± 0.05µm without any statistically significant differences during time. Degradation assay showed a two-folds increase of the weight related to the SBF absorption in the first 2 days. From the third day a constant degradation was observed. In the time frame of this experiment, the dimensional stability of the fibrin structure up to day 7 suggested that PRF membranes may also be used uncovered in the oral cavity. Subsequently, the effects of the nHAp addition during the forming process of PRF (thus during centrifugation) were investigated.