PRP At home

[Gabryhell]

Hi Gabryhell, I am new to the thread too and also like you I just bought everything I need for home prp. The last delivery of BD tubes with acd-a is coming in on Tuesday. I was thinking about that same question. I don't we need to activate it. I found this study on Pubmed https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5343942/ I haven't finished reading it, yet. I found another study that said that to avoid early activation to use a needle to withdraw blood greater than 22 gauge because thinner needles will activate the platellets. And the hypodermic needle I am going to use is 31 guage. So I think that means that the 31G will activate it. I am still reading.

Hi doug, thanks for this material But now i have even more questions XD the problem is that i wanted to use a dermaroller, But maybe i will buy a needle instead. Anyway i'm from Italy and i didn't find any tube with acd-a bit i bought 100 with sodium citrate i hope it Will work as good.

[DougS]

ACD-A is used in US but not EDTA and not ACD-B

ACD stands for Acid Citrate Dextrose and ACD-A/ACD-B are the different mixtures. I found this long blog (https://www.researchgate.net/post/Wh...trate_or_ACD-A) among many doctors on this topic. They say that ACD-A is best. About 3/4 down the page a Max-Joseph Kraus from Universität Koblenz-Landau gave a lot of details including the product's catalog number (367714) of the tube with ACD-A that he uses. Its made by BD and I found their product catalog (https://www.bd.com/resource.aspx?idx=30770) and the product is at the bottom of page 21. I bought mine here (https://www.pulmolab.com/product_inf...0wVVQFsKKHvOCd). Its arriving on Tuesday.

[DougS]

I think that sodium citrate may be different that Citrate Dextrose.

[Peeone78]

I have been doing my own "at home" PRP as well and also have all of the necessary equipment. However, it seems this thread has not gotten much attention, though.

Strange?

-Birdman

Hi birdman where did you get your calcium chloride from

[DougS]

Ok, just thought I'll put in my 2 cents. Links are just for references, I'm sure you can find something cheaper online or locally.

Drawing blood - I'm a phlebotomist. So this I know A LOT. get a butterfly needle, 21g or 23g. Either draw yourself or get someone to help you.

http://www.plcofamerica.com/blog/2013/04/11/winged-infusion-needles-butterfly-needles/

Needle holders - http://www.plcofamerica.com/blog/201...erfly-needles/

Tourniquets to help your veins pop and easier to draw: https://www.amazon.com/Physician-Sup...ds=Tourniquets

Tube rack for when you need to keep your tubes upright to pipette the RPR. Also use it to store your unused PRP in freezer (read below): https://www.amazon.com/SEOH-TEST-TUB...ds=tube+holder

Pipettes to remove plasma from your tubes: https://www.amazon.com/Qingsun-Dispo...words=pipettes

Look thru YouTube on how to do a simple blood draw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w3-gtzvenk

Type of Tubes: Tubes with ACD solutions or simple EDTA works fine too. The trick is to not let the blood clot. Without ACD or EDTA you will only get serum in return and not plasma. That said, I still prefer ACD.

ACD: https://www.amazon.com/Solution-Tube...ords=acd+tubes

Sterile tubes - you need some sterile tubes to keep your PRP before you transfer to your syringes. Also you can use this to storage your unused PRP and keep them in the freezer. Plasma is usable for up to one year if store in freezer. So keep in mind to draw a little more blood each time. When ready to use the frozen PRP, just thaw them in room temperature. https://www.amazon.com/EarthOx-Steri...=sterile+tubes

Centrifuge: https://www.amazon.com/Tangkula-Elec...rds=centrifuge


Ok here are the steps:

1. Draw your blood in ACD tubes. maybe 6-8 tubes if you want. Can save the rest of the PRP in freezer.

2. First Spin - Spin your tubes in centrifuge. Pipette the plasma and buffy coat into sterile tubes. If you get a little red blood cells that's fine too, no big deal. Just try to be careful only get plasma and buffy coat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_...ion-scheme.png

3. Second spin - spin your sterile tubes in centrifuge AGAIN. This is to get more concentrated PRP. Ok, now you should see a tube full of yellow goodness and possible a few drops on blood at the bottom. The droplets of blood is from your pipette session if you accidentally sucked in a little red blood cell. like i've said, no big deal. Ok, now look at the tubes, the top 2/3 of it is PPP (Platelet Poor Plasma). Those are not what you want. You only want to keep the bottom 1/3 of the plasma, which is your PRP (platelet RICH plasma). You can research what you can use with the PPP, mostly we just discard it. But I don't know, maybe you can rub on your face? http://image.ec21.com/company/b/bs/b...pimg/01-03.jpg
So at this point, you will want to pipette out top 2/3 of it and discard. Save the rest of it for your injection. Injecting your PRP with a little droplets of red blood cell is okay.

4. Injection - Use lidocaine numbing cream if you want. https://www.amazon.com/Lidocane-Plus...lidocaine+4%25. Follow package instructions.

Get yourself some 1-3ml syringes. Get the needles from here: https://beautygroup-shop.com/meso-re...-12mm-25mm-1pc. Why you asked? because these needles are 4mm deep. You want the PRP to be as near to your hair follicles as possible. Your hair follicles are about 4mm deep from your scalp. This 4mm needles will also prevent your injections to go too shallow or too deep. Some people like to add calcium to "open up" the platelets. You can do that too. But seriously, this step is optional.

5. Frequency? Well, once every two weeks sounds reasonable to start with. Then you can reduce to once every 4 weeks.

Good luck!

That was helpful, but I did find one thing on Pubmed that said that "Lidocaine had a negative effect on platelet aggregation rate". I think that might be why some places don't use anaesthetics for PRP hair injections. Here the research link https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4049644/

[DougS]

Just did my 1st DIY PRP hair treatment. I drew my own blood into two 8.5ml vacutainers, centrifuged twice and injected it into my scalp. The first 6 attempts failed (needle fell out, missed the vein, didn't mix anticoagolent properly, etc...). I still have to workout some of the problems like the syringe to use to inject into scalp. The syringe I used was the same one that diabetics use, purchased from CVS. Filling the syringe didn't work well. I think I need a luerlock syringe with a large bore needle to fill the syringe, and then a small bore needle to inject.

[paspar]

Just did my 1st DIY PRP hair treatment. I drew my own blood into two 8.5ml vacutainers, centrifuged twice and injected it into my scalp. The first 6 attempts failed (needle fell out, missed the vein, didn't mix anticoagolent properly, etc...). I still have to workout some of the problems like the syringe to use to inject into scalp. The syringe I used was the same one that diabetics use, purchased from CVS. Filling the syringe didn't work well. I think I need a luerlock syringe with a large bore needle to fill the syringe, and then a small bore needle to inject.

centrifuged the 8.5ml's twice?

what syringe and needle did you use to inject? how do you transfer prp into it?

[DougS]

I used the vacutainers found here (https://www.pulmolab.com/product_inf...RoCv7MQAvD_BwE). I filled 2 of them. Did a low rpm centrifuge, pipette out the yellow PPP and buffy coat into another tube, and then centrifuged that a second time on high RPMs. I used a hypodermic syringe with a 31G needle. I did it again today and it worked. I had to fill the syringe from the top instead of pulling it up through the needle.

[DougS]

I did my 2nd PRP today and I learned a couple of things. After the 1st centrifuge, when pipetting out the PPP (the yellow), its a good idea to also pipette up the top most red blood cells. That way you are sure to get all the platelets (Platelets only make up 1%). And after the 2nd centrifuge, and after you discard the top 2/3rds of the yellow PPP, its a good idea to pipette out the remainder, but leave the bottom most red blood cells. Red blood cells can cause inflamation.

[Avsynthe]

Hi guys

Just a quick question regarding choosing the right tube for optimal platelet count

I have stumbled across this comparative study listed here. It is a VERY interesting read:

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/sci/2016/7414036/

Particularly the parts in the "Results" section that read:

"Blood samples collected with EDTA yielded higher numbers of platelets, followed by SC and ACD. In average, platelet counting in SC was 16.28% lower than that in EDTA, while that in ACD was 23.01% lower than in EDTA and 7.94% lower than in SC"

This would indicate that EDTA (Purple) tubes would be the best as some people have mentioned

HOWEVER!!! It goes on to read:

"However, platelet recovery, regarding the total number of platelets obtained after the first centrifugation step, was higher in the presence of SC compared to EDTA and ACD. The average of platelet recovery in EDTA and SC was 76.15% and 81.21%, respectively. Strikingly, platelet recovery in samples collected with ACD was 45.71%, almost half of those when using EDTA or SC"

THIS would suggest, that at the point of effectively using the PRP, Sodium Citrate (Light Blue) tubes would yield the optimal results

Or is it not just the platelet count that is at play with PRP treatment? Would it even make a real world difference?

I would love to know, what are your thoughts and experiences with this?

For a list of tube types, what they do and they're colour, see here:

https://bitesizebio.com/23701/choosing-the-right-blood-collection-tubes/

Thanks very much in advance

[DougS]

I am not medical professional. I rely on the research I find in PubMed. I just found this article that came out in 2019 which compared EDTA, sodium citrate, and acid citrate dextrose-A (ACD-A). The link to the study is at the bottom. Here is their conclusion:

"Within the limits of this study, we would like to conclude that ACD-A vials should be used for collecting and processing blood for PRP preparation to obtain best results in hair rejuvenation."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30533986

[Bgwin]

PRP injection

I have done 2 PRP injections on my husbands head, but they have been very painful. I’m using a 31 gauge 2 mm needle. Ive used 4% topical lidocaine, but really didn’t numb him that good. Any suggestions on maybe an injectable lidocaine?

[DougS]

I don't use any pain medication. I found this article about the Impact of local anaesthetics (link below). Its says not to use Lidocaine. You might be going too deep and hitting muscle. My understanding is that Injections need to go to the dermis or hypodermis layer which are above the muscle. This is the studies conclusion...

"This study evidenced that use of local anaesthetics to prevent pain during PRP injections may compromise the potentially beneficial of PRP effects by reducing platelets reactivity. Accordingly, we suggest using carefully local anaesthetics or limiting their use as often as possible. In addition, since the different needle sizes and calibres tested for PRP injections were shown to have no influence on platelet functionality, we recommend using 30 G needles to minimize injection pain"

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4049644/[/url]

[DougS]

I found this pubmed article that says they should be "Intradermal injections" "to a depth of 1.5–2.5 mm". This info can be found at the link below under their "Suggested Treatment Protocol" header

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5806173/

[Bgwin]

OK, thanks for the info!