Design and development of a disk-based system for separating platelet rich plasma

Blood consists of 55% blood fluid called plasma, and 45% shaped blood cells. The main task of plasma is to transport nutrients, waste products, antibodies, coagulation proteins, hormones, proteins that help maintain the body's fluid balance and blood cells. Plateletrich plasma (PRP) therapy, which offers a new aesthetic approach as well as its use for the improvement of injured connective tissue, is a popular application performed by injection of the patient's own platelet concentrations. In this method, it is aimed to minimize the immune risk by using each patient's own recovery system for improvement and development. In order for PRP treatment to give more effective results, it is necessary to obtain the desired rate and high purity platelets from the blood. For this purpose, only commercially available PRP blood tubes and centrifuge method are used today. There are 2 different methods used. These are the production of PRP with a single centrifuge and PRP with a double centrifuge process. Since the centrifugation process is performed at high speeds in a short time in a single centrifuge process, in a long time and at variable speeds in the double centrifuge process, it causes platelet cells to be stressed, damaged, active, agglomerate and not obtain the desired purity. n this thesis, a disk-based PRP separation kit has been developed in order to minimize these problems. There are three different steps in the production of this separation kit. These are respectively the development of the disc-based system, the production of the centrifuge device and thixotropic gel. First of all, in order to ensure the quick and simple separation of the platelet rich region in the blood, disc-based systems with different designs were designed in 2D and 3D with the Solidworks 2018 Premium program and their effectiveness was examined. The most suitable disc design was determined by optimizing parameters such as different channel structures, channel designs, loading apparatus according to the amount of blood sample and the red blood cell / plasma ratio. The design is produced from Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) layers and 130 μm double-sided tape layers using a laser cutting device. Secondly, A centrifuge device suitable for disc based system was improved. The STM32F103 development board is programmed and combined with the BLDC Grand Turbo GT2215 / 09 engine so as to allow the proper centrifugal force to be applied to the disk-based system. Arduino Uno development board was programmed and Canon Eos 450D camera was used with Power led stroboscope system to display the disk based system during the centrifuge process. Thirdly, A thixotropic gel was produced to be integrated into the disc design for the efficient isolation of PRP from the blood. By comparing with a commercially gel, the FTIR rheological properties of gels were determined and rheological analysis confirmed that the our gel was show thixotropic behaviour. Consequently, after the centrifugation process, it was determined that the enrichment factor was increased by 3.53 with the platelet count analysis performed after PRP isolation with a Z-shaped channel disc in which the thixotropic gel produced was integrated. Thus, PRP was successfully obtained from whole blood using a simple, low centrifugation speed, shorter time and cost effective disc-based system with separating gel. We believe that this separation method produced will make a significant progress in the implementation of PRP for medical purposes.