Platelet-Derived Components for Skin and Bone Aging and Age-Associated Pathologies: Mechanisms, Bioengineering Strategies, and Clinical Translation

TL;DR

This review explores how platelet-derived components can help rejuvenate aging skin and bone, highlighting their mechanisms, bioengineering strategies, and clinical potential.

Contribution

The paper distinguishes between pathology-targeted repair and rejuvenation under physiological aging, offering a comprehensive analysis of platelet-based anti-aging strategies.

Findings

Platelet-derived products show favorable safety and efficacy in cutaneous and skeletal regeneration.

Bioengineering strategies like platelet-mimetic delivery vehicles enhance therapeutic performance.

Standardization and outcome measures remain key challenges for clinical translation.

Abstract

Advances in regenerative medicine have positioned platelets and their derivatives—including platelet-rich plasma, platelet-rich fibrin, platelet lysate, extracellular vesicles, and purified growth factors—as promising interventions specifically for skin and bone aging, two clinically accessible tissues with robust preclinical and clinical evidence for platelet-derived component-based rejuvenation and regeneration. Because much of the available evidence comes from injury models or age-associated inflammatory/degenerative diseases, we explicitly distinguish pathology-targeted inflammation resolution/repair from rejuvenation under physiological aging. This review summarizes the composition and core bioactivities of platelet-derived products and delineates their putative anti-aging mechanisms, encompassing proangiogenic signaling, immunomodulation, attenuation of oxidative stress, regulation of extracellular matrix turnover, and stimulation of osteogenesis. We further evaluate emerging applications that expand therapeutic performance, such as platelet-mimetic delivery vehicles, engineered and sustained-release formulations, and targeted use of subcellular structures. Evidence from recent preclinical and clinical studies indicates favorable safety profiles and signals of efficacy across cutaneous rejuvenation and skeletal regeneration, while underscoring persistent challenges related to product standardization, dosing, and outcome measures. Collectively, platelet-based therapeutics represent a versatile platform with broad applicability to anti-aging interventions in skin and bone and strong potential for translation through continued bioengineering and clinical validation. However, because most available evidence comes from injury models or age-associated diseases (e.g., photoaging, chronic wounds, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis), direct extrapolation to physiological aging is limited; throughout, we explicitly contrast these contexts, specify their indication-specific endpoints, and summarize the main translational limitations.

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