Platelet-rich plasma therapy effective in treatment of melasma: Study

A new study published in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology showed that platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is an efficient and safe therapy for melasma. Melasma is a prevalent, persistent, recurring pigment illness with a poorly understood pathophysiology that has a detrimental impact on cosmetic quality of life.

Despite no curative treatment for melasma so far, different topical and systemic therapies, as well as procedures including peeling, microneedling, laser, and light systems are used to prevent and manage the illness. PRP therapy has recently emerged as a new therapeutic option for melasma. The success of this therapy has been linked to a number of growth factors that inhibit melanogenesis via several signal transduction pathways.

Photoactivation has been proposed to improve the efficacy of PRP by stimulating the release of growth factors from platelets in circumstances other than dermatological illnesses. The effectiveness of photoactivated PRP (P-PRP) in treating melasma has not been studied, despite studies in the literature suggesting that PRP therapy is beneficial in this disease. The effectiveness of P-PRP in treating melasma was assessed in the current study by contrasting it with conventional, non-photoactivated PRP (C-PRP).

A total of 38 female patients with melasma diagnoses between April 2022 and May 2023 made up the study data. The P-PRP and C-PRP groups were assigned to the patients at random. The patients had 3 P-PRP or C-PRP treatments spaced 2 weeks apart. Prior to and 2 weeks following therapy, the Melasma Area and Severity Index (MASI) and Melasma Quality of Life Index (MELASQoL) scores were compared.

The typical illness duration was 60 months, and the median age was 38 years. Clinically, 5.3% of the patients were malar, and 94.7% of the cases were centrofacial. Wood's lamp examination revealed that 31.6% of the cases were mixed-type, 13.2% were dermal, and 55.3% were epidermal. For MELASQoL, the median pre- and post-treatment scores were 36.5 and 17, respectively, and for MASI, they were 14.5 and 9. The post-treatment MASI and MELASQoL scores of both groups showed a substantial decline.

The intergroup difference, however, was not statistically significant. A positive, moderate, and significant correlation between PRP and the MASI and MELASQoL scores before and after therapy was found when all patients were assessed collectively. Also, there were no PRP-related adverse effects noted. This study found that both approaches to PRP administration were successful in treating melasma.

Overall, the number of patients who saw a 25% to 50% drop in MASI scores following P-PRP therapy was 1.7 times more than that of the C-PRP group, despite the fact that there was no statistically significant difference in the effectiveness of the two treatments.

Source:

Demir, F. T., & Altun, E. (2024). Comparison of platelet‐rich plasma efficacy with and without photoactivation in melasma: A randomized double‐blind study. In Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology (Vol. 23, Issue 12, pp. 3911–3917). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocd.16540