Today, veterinarians have multiple choices when it comes to adding regenerative therapies to their treatment toolkits. However, not all therapies are created equal in terms of application and benefits, but it doesn’t need to be confusing to know which to choose and when to use. Therapies like exosome-based and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) can offer similar benefits for particular use cases, but there are key distinctions between each.
Exosome-based Therapies
Exosome therapies, like Regenaflex, are rich with an array of powerful components including not just exosomes, but also extracellular vesicles, growth factors, cytokines, microRNA, and an extracellular matrix. Literature has shown that these components are effective at minimizing inflammation, promoting healthy tissue healing, and having anti-microbial, anti-fibrotic, and anti-adhesion properties.
Platelet-rich Plasma Therapies
PRP is produced from a horse’s own blood using a specialized system that concentrates the blood platelets. The resulting serum is then injected back into the horse where it is needed. By filtering out the red and white cells from the plasma, the high concentration of platelets and leukocytes that are left have been shown to promote tissue repair in situations like tendon and ligament injuries. Because the product is created from drawing an individual horse’s blood, there can be variability in efficacy not only between horses but also for a given horse treated at different times.
Benefits of Exosome Therapy over PRP
Unlike PRP, Regenaflex offers a consistent concentration of targeted components that have been shown to assist healing in soft-tissue injuries, wounds, eye injuries, osteoarthritis, and burns. Besides its consistency, other benefits include its “off-the-shelf” readiness with no additional processing or special equipment needed, and the convenience of being able to store it at room temperature for up to a year. With most PRP therapies, horses receive multiple doses, whereas Hilltop Bio’s products typically require only one application except in some extreme cases. All of these benefits make Regenaflex a cost effective alternative to PRP.
Of course, as with all things regarding regenerative therapy—and veterinary medicine overall—data is always changing with new studies and use cases being released regularly. For more in-depth information on using exosome products in a wide range of applications in multiple species, check out these helpful articles.
For a more in-depth look at the benefits of exosomes and extracellular vesicles and how they work, check out this recent write-up in JAVMA.
Ready to find out how you can add Hilltop Bio’s exosome therapies to your veterinary toolkit? Click here to reach out to a representative.
