Hyperacute serum has markedly better regenerative efficacy than platelet-rich plasma in a human bone oxygen-glucose deprivation model.

AIM: Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and hyperacute serum (HAS) were compared in a novel human model of ex vivo bone damage induced by oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD). MATERIALS & METHODS: Osteoarthritic subchondral bone pieces were harvested from discarded femoral heads during hip replacement surgery and subjected to transient OGD. RESULTS: Proteome profiling revealed that PRP is more angiopoietic, whereas HAS is more antiangiopoietic in composition. However, treatment of OGD-exposed bone with multiple PRP preparations had no effect on cell counts, whereas HAS restored cell proliferation capacity and rescued viable cell number following OGD. CONCLUSION: A similar pro-proliferation effect was observed with recombinant growth factors, indicating that HAS may be an alternative agent for enhancing the regeneration of damaged bone cells.

The Effects of Hyperacute Serum on the Elements of the Human Subchondral Bone Marrow Niche.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are widely used in laboratory experiments as well as in human cell therapy. Their culture requires animal sera like fetal calf serum (FCS) as essential supplementation; however, animal sera pose a risk for clinical applications. Human blood derivatives, for example, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) releasates, are potential replacements of FCS; however, it is unclear which serum variant has the best effect on the given cell or tissue type. Additionally, blood derivatives are commonly used in musculoskeletal diseases like osteoarthritis (OA) or osteonecrosis as "proliferative agents" for the topical MSC pool. Hyperacute serum (HAS), a new serum derivative, has been designed to approximate the natural coagulation cascade with a single-step, additive-free preparation method. We investigated the effects of HAS on monolayer MSC cultures and in their natural niche, in 3D subchondral bone and marrow explants. Viability measurements, RT-qPCR evaluation for gene expression and flow cytometry for cell surface marker analysis were performed to compare the effects of FCS-, PRP-, or HAS-supplemented culture media. Monolayer MSCs showed significantly higher metabolic activity following 5 days' incubation in HAS, and osteoblast-specific mRNA expression was markedly increased, while cells also retained their MSC-specific cell surface markers. A similar effect was observed on bone and marrow explants, which was further confirmed with confocal microscopy analysis. Moreover, markedly higher bone marrow preservation was observed with histology in case of HAS supplementation compared to FCS. These findings indicate possible application of HAS in regenerative solutions of skeletal diseases like OA or osteonecrosis.

Conversion arthroplasty of the hip: mid-term results are good.

The historical mid-term results of conversion total hip arthroplasty (THA) are acceptable; however, the complication rates are high. In total, 39 patients (45 hips) from 2 institutions underwent conversion THA from 1993-2006 and were retrospectively evaluated. The mean age was 48.3 years, the mean follow-up time was 8.7 years, and the mean duration arthrodesis prior to conversion THA was 18.2 years. The outcomes included operative time, blood loss, leg-length discrepancy (LLD), thigh circumference, Harris Hip Score (HHS), complications, and radiographic evaluation. A total of 34 THAs were cemented, and 11 were uncemented. The mean operative time was 102 minutes, and the mean blood loss was 1019 ml. The mean HHS improved from 32.4 to 82.5 (p<0.01). The mean LLD decreased from 4.2 to 1.1 cm, while the thigh circumference increased by a mean of 1.6 cm. Complications included: a positive Trendelenburg gait (6), early haematoma that required surgical evacuation (5), dislocation (2), deep infection (1), and early aseptic loosening of the components (2). In conclusion, the functional results of the conversion THA using predominantly cemented components are good at mid-term follow-up; although the complication rates remain higher than a standard primary THA, aseptic loosening rates of the cemented components is low at mid-term follow-up.