GFC therapy: how it differs from PRP
Growth factor concentrate is prepared from your own blood but processed further. Fewer sessions, wider spacing, same honest limits.
Written and clinically reviewed by Dr. G. Revanth, MBBS DDVL DNB · August 2026 · 2 min read
GFC is prepared from your own blood like PRP, but processed further: the platelets are deliberately broken down and their growth factors released before injection rather than after. That means a more concentrated and more predictable dose, fewer sessions — usually three or four — and wider spacing, at four to six weeks.
The one technical difference that matters
In PRP, whole platelets are injected and release their growth factors gradually inside the tissue, at a rate that depends on your own platelet count and how they behave once delivered. In GFC, that release is done in the tube. What is injected is the growth factor payload itself, without the cells.
The practical consequences are a more consistent dose between patients and between sessions, and a milder post-session reaction, because the cellular component that drives most of the tenderness is not there.
PRP and GFC side by side
| PRP | GFC | |
|---|---|---|
| What is injected | Whole platelets | Released growth factors |
| Typical course | 4–6 sessions | 3–4 sessions |
| Interval | 3–4 weeks | 4–6 weeks |
| Post-session tenderness | Moderate, a day or two | Usually milder and shorter |
| Maintenance | Every 4–6 months | Every 6 months |
| Assessed at | Month 4–6 | Month 4–6 |
The limits are identical
Everything true of PRP's ceiling is true of GFC. It thickens follicles that are still alive. It reduces shedding. It does not create new follicles and it will not fill a bald area. Anyone presenting GFC as a category difference rather than a preparation difference is overselling it.
Where it fits alongside surgery
GFC is frequently used as part of a surgical plan rather than on its own — typically at around week four and again at month three after a transplant, supporting the grafts through the period when they are dormant. If yours is part of a surgical plan, those dates are already in your file rather than offered to you later.
The twenty-four-hour no-wash rule and the seventy-two-hour rule on anti-inflammatory painkillers apply to GFC exactly as they apply to PRP. Paracetamol is fine; ibuprofen works against the mechanism.