The Use Of Autologous Growth Factors In Sports Medicine

Abstract

Growth factors are a group of cytokines, which stimulate cellular growth, proliferation and differentiation. They have been used with different mediums and protocols to promote wound/injury healing for more than thirty years by different medical disciplines. Recently, they have started to be used for the treatment of sport injuries, especially for the soft tissue injuries. It's been advocated that growth factor applications into the injured site are useful for both chronic and acute injuries and accelerating the healing process. Hematopoietic cells, especially platelets are good sources of growth factors. More research is needed to achieve a final therapeutic approach among different mediums and protocols. A very important issue is that the use of growth factors is prohibited by WADA, which needs to be solved in favor of the athletes' health in the near future.