HARVESTING AUTOLOGOUS GROWTH FACTORS FOR SURGICAL USE

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Recombinant and autologous growth factor healants are being utilized increasingly for clinical and surgical wound healing scenarios. Recombinant growth factors are therapeutically applied to heal intractable diabetic and venous ulcers, while autologous growth factors are used in major orthopedic applications such as spinal fusion and joint implants. However, the cost and/or inconvenience of the current growth factor-based products have impeded their widespread use. The future of surgical growth factor healants will thus depend on the ease with which autologous growth factors can be obtained, and significant cost reduction. Recognizing this, the applicants have designed a process for quick, convenient and relatively inexpensive intraoperative harvesting of autologous platelets with preserved growth factors. The novel system described in this proposal obviates the need for centrifugation, and it can, for the first time, enable routine harvesting of autologous growth factors from small volumes of blood during surgery. The harvesting of platelets by this process can allow the delivery of growth factors using a wide variety of approved substrates such as hydrogels, collagen compositions, alginates etc. The eventual goal of this concept is to make autologous growth factors readily available for use in a wide variety of soft and hard tissue surgical applications. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: The proposed project will lead to the development of a convenient, quick and inexpensive process to isolate autologous growth factors that can be delivered to augment wound healing in various soft and hard tissue surgical procedures.