10/27/2025
EmCyte Insights | Weekly Mini Journal Club
Today’s spotlight is on a study tackling a tough problem: acute anterior cruciate ligament ACL tears set off a synovial inflammatory storm that can speed cartilage breakdown and raise post-traumatic osteoarthritis risk.
Standard care often proceeds to anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction ACLR, but this team asked a simple question: can preoperative leukocyte-poor platelet-rich plasma LP-PRP quiet the joint’s biology before surgery?
A Level I randomized controlled trial comparing aspiration-only control versus aspiration plus two preoperative intra-articular LP-PRP injections roughly 10 days after injury and again 5 to 12 days later.
Synovial fluid was sampled at injury and again at ACLR for inflammatory and chondrodegenerative biomarkers including interleukins IL-1ß, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, GM-CSF, interferon gamma IFN-v, and tumor necrosis factor alpha TNF-a.
* Within-group change: the LP-PRP arm showed significant reductions in 9 of 10 cytokines; IL-8 trended down p=0.08.
*Control arm: only IL-8 p=0.007 and IFN-v p=0.007 decreased significantly.
* At surgery: no significant between-group differences in cytokine levels, consistent with a small pilot underpowered for between-group effects.
*Effusion signal: more LP-PRP knees had insufficient fluid to sample at surgery, suggesting less synovitis.
*Product check and safety: counts confirmed true leukocyte-poor PRP; no adverse events reported.
Takeaway
Preoperative LP-PRP appears safe and biologically active in acute ACL tears, dampening synovial inflammation ahead of reconstruction.
These findings justify larger blinded trials to test whether early biomarker shifts translate into better pain, function, imaging, and lower long-term osteoarthritis risk.
Article: https://Inkd.in/ekfQw7_t
Sina Farzaneh (PhD), Rowan Paul, M.D., Gayan Poovendran MD,CAQSM, Vivek Babaria, DO,Leonardo Oliveira, MD, FACP, FACSM, Erek Latzka MD, RMSK,Michael Meng.
