A biocompatible and biodegradable peptide-based hybrid material can help stop bleeding, a study reveals1. The material mimics the blood-clotting properties of fibrin and the adhesiveness of specific proteins found in the foot pad of marine mussels.
The material, when applied on rabbit wounds, has accelerated blood-clotting and wound healing with less blood loss than fibrin, a team of researchers has found.
The material, named as ‘sealant’, could potentially be used for treating traumatic injuries of accident victims and injured soldiers, the researchers say.
Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, and the West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, both in Kolkata, India, synthesised a peptide-based sealant.
The researchers, led by Rituparna Sinha Roy and Samit Kumar Nandi, then tested the efficiency of the sealant in aiding blood clotting and closing wounds in rabbits without a suture.
They found that the sealant stopped bleeding from a rabbit liver wound within about 100 seconds. The sealant also closed full-thickness rabbit-skin wounds more efficiently than the fibrin, suture and stapler without causing any adverse immune reactions.
The sealant-treated wounds showed the growth of thick, matured and organised collagen bundles, suggesting that it is a better wound-healing agent than fibrin.
The sealant could prevent bacterial growth, indicating its potential to promote infection-free wound healing. Its clotting mechanism doesn’t depend on the body’s own blood-clotting process, making it potentially useful for treating patients with bleeding disorders such as haemophilia, the researchers say.
References
1. Ghosh, S. et al. Bioinspired non-immunogenic multifunctional sealant for efficient blood clotting and suture-free wound closure. ACS. Biomater. Eng. Sci. 6, 6378-6393 (2020)
