The use of fat grafting and platelet‐rich plasma for wound healing: A review of the current evidence

Fat grafting is becoming a common procedure in regenerative medicine because of its high content of growth factors and adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) and the ease of harvest, safety, and low cost. The high concentration of ADSCs found in fat has the potential to differentiate into a wide range of wound‐healing cells including fibroblasts and keratinocytes as well as demonstrating proangiogenic qualities. This suggests that fat could play an important role in wound healing. However retention rates of fat grafts are highly variable due in part to inconsistent vascularisation of the transplanted fat. Furthermore, conditions such as diabetes, which have a high prevalence of chronic wounds, reduce the potency and regenerative potential of ADSCs. Platelet‐rich plasma (PRP) is an autologous blood product rich in growth factors, cell adhesion molecules, and cytokines. It has been hypothesised that PRP may have a positive effect on the survival and retention of fat grafts because of improved proliferation and differentiations of ADSCs, reduced inflammation, and improved vascularisation. There is also increasing interest in a possible synergistic effect that PRP may have on the healing potential of fat, although the evidence for this is very limited. In this review, we evaluate the evidence in both in vitro and animal studies on the mechanistic relationship between fat and PRP and how this translates to a benefit in wound healing. We also discuss future directions for both research and clinical practice on how to enhance the regenerative potential of the combination of PRP and fat.