Antibacterial potential of platelet lysate membranes for orthopedic applications

[Excerpt] Statement of Purpose: Microbial infections are one of the most serious complications on post-transplant and surgery. The recurrent use of antibiotic therapeutic to treat such infections has led to the increase of microbial strain resistance, and thus, reducing antibiotic efficacy1. Platelet-rich hemoderivatives (PRHd) gained great interest in the medical field, namely in sports medicine and orthopaedics2,3. Platelet lysate (PL), a PRHd produced by cryogenic disruption of platelet concentrates, has been proposed as an alternative source of growth factors. PL membranes were previously developed in our group as prospective bioinstructive patches for tendon regeneration under the hypothesis that tendon cells respond positively to PL-derived biochemical signals. The present study focused on assessing the antibacterial potential of these PL membranes given that previous studies suggested that platelet-rich plasma (PRP) presents antimicrobial properties. For instance, PRP activation through thrombin exhibited antimicrobial properties in vitro4, but the antibacterial properties of PL proteins immobilized as crosslinked membranes are still unknown. Thus, this study aimed at investigating the potential of PL membranes as antibacterial surfaces for biomedical implants by studying their effects against Staphylococcus aureus (Gram positive), a common orthopaedic surgical site infection pathogen. [...]