• Vwaire Orhurhu, Ruben Schwartz, Jacob Potts, Jacqueline Peck, Ivan Urits, Mariam Salisu Orhurhu, Charles Odonkor, Omar Viswanath, Alan Kaye, and Jatinder Gill.
• Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, 330 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. Vwo569@mail.harvard.edu.
• Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2019 Sep 9; 23 (11): 82.

Purpose Of ReviewChronic knee pain remains a debilitating condition that remains difficult to manage. The purpose of this review, therefore, is to summarize current understanding of alpha-2-microglobulin in the treatment of osteoarthritic knee pain. Furthermore, we investigate its role in the anti-inflammatory properties of platelet-rich plasma (PRP).Recent FindingsAlpha-2-microglobulin, a 720-kD protein complex, is an active protease inhibitor with tremendous anti-inflammatory properties in animal models. A growing body of evidence suggests that this complex is the most instrumental factor for cartilage preservation in PRP injections. As an active component of platelet-rich plasma's anti-inflammatory properties, alpha-2-microglobulin has been shown to be an active inhibitor of joint degeneration, cartilage preservation, and improvement in quality of life for patients with knee osteoarthritis compared with a multitude of other modalities.

13 keywords...

hide…