PRGF exerts more potent proliferative and anti-inflammatory effects than autologous serum on a cell culture inflammatory model

Ocular graft versus host disease (oGVHD) is part of a systemic inflammatory disease that usually affects ocular surface tissues manifesting as a dry eye syndrome. Current treatments provide unsatisfactory results. Blood-derived products, like plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF) emerge as a potential therapy for this disease. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the tissue regeneration and anti-inflammatory capability of PRGF, an autologous platelet enriched plasma eye-drop, compared to autologous serum (AS) obtained from oGVHD patients on ocular surface cells cultured in a pro-inflammatory environment. PRGF and AS were obtained from four GVHD patients. Cell proliferation and inflammation markers, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), were measured in corneal and conjunctival fibroblastic cells cultured under pro-inflammatory conditions and after treatment with PRGF or AS eye drops. Moreover, cell proliferation increased after treatment with PRGF and AS, though this enhancement in the case of keratocytes was significantly higher with PRGF. PRGF eye drops showed a significant reduction of both inflammatory markers with respect to the initial inflammatory situation and to the AS treatment. Our results concluded that PRGF exerts more potent regenerative and anti-inflammatory effects than autologous serum on ocular surface fibroblasts treated with pro-inflammatory IL-1β and TNFα.