Over the past few decades, more and more articles about platelet-rich plasma (PRP) use in regenerative medicine have been published. The aim of this study was to determine which articles have been most influential in this field by identifying and analyzing the characteristics of the 100 most cited articles. Articles on the use of PRP in regenerative medicine were identified via the Thomson ISI Web of Science database. A majority of the articles originated from the USA (36%). The top journal in terms of number of articles was American Journal of Sports Medicine (12%). Musculoskeletal system and orthopedics (54%) were the most popular fields of applications. Preclinical studies were the most represented study type, from which only 8 from 46 (17.4%) provided a complete numerical description of the injected product. Analysis showed a time-dependent trend of increasing quality of the clinical studies (p = 0.004), although none of them provided a complete biological characterization of the injected PRP. This study demonstrated that the use of PRP in regenerative medicine is a growing and popular area of research, mainly focused on orthopedic applications. Studies on PRP-derived exosomes, biological characterization, and correlation with clinical results might be areas of future trends.

Adipose tissue is recognized as a valuable source of cells with angiogenic, immunomodulatory, reparative and antifibrotic properties and emerged as a therapeutic alternative for the regeneration and repair of damaged tissues. The use of adipose-tissue-based therapy is expanding in autoimmune diseases, particularly in Systemic Sclerosis (SSc), a disease in which hands and face are severely affected, leading to disability and a decrease in quality of life. Combining the advantage of an abundant supply of fat tissue and a high abundance of stem/stromal cells, fat grafting and adipose tissue-derived cell-based therapies are attractive therapeutic options in SSc. This review aims to synthesize the evidence to determine the effects of the use of these biological products for face and hands treatment in the context of SSc. This highlights several points: the need to use relevant effectiveness criteria taking into account the clinical heterogeneity of SSc in order to facilitate assessment and comparison of innovative therapies; second, it reveals some impacts of the disease on fat-grafting success; third, an important heterogeneity was noticed regarding the manufacturing of the adipose-derived products and lastly, it shows a lack of robust evidence from controlled trials comparing adipose-derived products with standard care.

No injection treatment has been proven to be effective in wrist osteoarthritis. When conservative measures fail, its management involves invasive surgery. Emergence of biotherapies based on adipose derived stem cells (ADSC) offers promising treatments for chondral degenerative diseases. Microfat (MF) and platelets-rich plasma (PRP) mixture, rich in growth factors and ADSC could be a minimally invasive injectable option in the treatment of wrist osteoarthritis. The aim of this uncontrolled prospective study was to evaluate the safety of a 4 mL autologous MF-PRP intra-articular injection, performed under local anesthesia. The secondary purpose was to describe the clinical and MRI results at 12 months of follow-up. Patients’ data collected were: occurrence of adverse effects, Visual analog scale (VAS), Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand score (DASH) and Patient-Rated Wrist Evaluation (PRWE) scores, wrist strength, wrist range of motion and 5-level satisfaction scale. No serious adverse event was recorded. A statistically significant decrease in pain, DASH, PRWE and force was observed at each follow-up. Our preliminary results suggest that intra-articular autologous MF and PRP injection may be a new therapeutic strategy for wrist osteoarthritis resistant to medical symptomatic treatment prior to surgical interventions.