Application of Gold Nanoparticles of Different Concentrations to Improve the Therapeutic Potential of Autologous Conditioned Serum: Potential Implications for Equine Regenerative Medicine

The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of gold nanoparticles (AuNPS) on equine platelet morphology, ultrastructure as well as secretion of bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), gelsolin (GSN), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). The gold nanoparticles, with an average diameter of 20 nm, were incubated with whole anticoagulated blood at 1%, 5%, and 10% w/v for 24 hours. We showed that the application of gold nanoparticles at all the tested concentrations led to platelet activation; however, 5% of AuNPS resulted in the secretion of elevated levels of GSN and VEGF, while the concentration of TNF-α was the lowest. The data indicate that this method may be considered a promising tool for improving the currently used in clinical practice commercially available autologous conditioned serum (ACS) isolation systems for the treatment of equine osteoarthritis