Study: Female Androgenetic Alopecia

Platelet-Rich Plasma in Female Androgenetic Alopecia: A Comprehensive Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

In this work, Zhou et al.³ summarize different treatment regimes in female androgenetic alopecia (AGA), and quantitively analyze the efficacy of PRP in this disease.

They evaluated 636 studies and 12 trials from six databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, LILACS, and CNKI ). Meta-analysis was conducted with enrolled observational studies and randomized controlled trials separately.

A total of 42 studies (including 6 studies using Regen Lab technology^4-9) including 776 female participants, covering 16 randomized controlled trials and 26 observational trials, were included for these systematic review and meta-analysis . PRP showed positive efficacy in treating female AGA in hair density compared to the control groups with odds ratio (OR) 1.61 [95% CI 0.52–2.70] and compared to baseline with OR 1.11 [95% CI 0.86–1.37].

This work demonstrated an effective response and safety for the application of PRP in the treatment of female AGA. Especially for those patients with negative response to the topical use of minoxidil, PRP offers an alternative treatment option.

The authors only used hair density as an endpoint to perform meta-analysis for the diversitity of endpoint settings among the enrolled studies, while hair density is the most used one. This result is in accordance with previous systemic review.
Taken together, these results confirm the efficacy of PRP in the treatment of female AGA.

Bruno BOEZENNEC, MD, Managing Editor

References :

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2.Evans AG, Mwangi JM, Pope RW, Ivanic MG, Botros MA, Glassman GE, Pearce FB Jr, Kassis S. Platelet-rich plasma as a therapy for androgenic alopecia: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Dermatolog Treat. 2022 Feb;33(1):498-511. doi: 10.1080/09546634.2020.1770171. Epub 2020 May 26. PMID: 32410524.

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9.Ho A, Sukhdeo K, Lo Sicco K, Shapiro J. Trichologic response of platelet-rich plasma in androgenetic alopecia is maintained during combination therapy. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2020 Feb;82(2):478-479.