Platelet-rich plasma is an injection made from your own blood. A clinician draws a sample, spins it in a centrifuge to concentrate the platelets — the cells that carry growth factors — and injects that concentrate back into the injured tendon.
The idea behind it: platelets release growth factors where they land, so putting a concentrated dose at the injury site should push healing along.
Why it comes up here. PRP is often the treatment people compare a peptide against for stubborn tendon pain. It’s worth knowing because of what separates the two: PRP has actually been tested in controlled human trials.
What the trials found. A meta-analysis of trials in lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) found PRP was not reliably better than a placebo shot for pain or function.[1]
That result is the useful part. PRP is a real medical procedure, given by clinicians, with human trials behind it — and it still didn’t clearly beat a placebo for elbow tendon pain. Compounds like BPC-157 have no completed human trial for any elbow tendon condition at all, so there’s no comparable evidence to weigh either way.
More on how this plays out in an elbow: BPC-157 and climber’s elbow.