Muscle injuries are among the most common setbacks for athletes and active people. They slow down recovery, limit performance, and sometimes leave lasting weakness. Doctors and trainers often turn to platelet-rich plasma (PRP) as part of the healing plan—but not all PRP is the same.
A new study looked at a big question: does the type of PRP matter when it comes to healing muscle? Specifically, researchers compared leukocyte-poor PRP (LP-PRP) and leukocyte-rich PRP (LR-PRP). Leukocytes are white blood cells, and depending on how PRP is prepared, it can have more or fewer of them.
Scientists created a muscle injury in the calf muscle of rats, then treated them one day later with either:
Saline (no PRP, just fluid for comparison)
LP-PRP (low white blood cells)
LR-PRP (higher white blood cells)
They then measured healing at different time points—looking at muscle repair under the microscope, strength recovery, and new blood vessel growth.
Muscle repair was faster with LR-PRP. The muscle fibers grew back stronger and larger compared to LP-PRP.
Strength returned more quickly. After just a week, the LR-PRP group regained much more muscle strength than the other groups.
Blood supply improved. LR-PRP encouraged new blood vessel growth, which is crucial for delivering oxygen and nutrients during healing.
These results suggest that LR-PRP may be more effective than LP-PRP in the early stages of muscle injury healing. Better muscle regeneration, stronger contraction, and improved circulation could mean faster and more complete recovery for athletes.
This was a pre-clinical study in animals, not a human trial. While the findings are exciting, we still need high-quality clinical research in people before making strong treatment recommendations.
