HIGHLY POROUS ALGINATE/GELATIN SPONGE FOR HEMOSTASIS OF SEVERE FEMORAL BLEEDING IN RATS

Background & Aims:

 Controlling significant bleeding caused by accidents or battlefields is one of the main issues with emergency injuries. The current research was designed with the aim of investigating the binding performance of alginate, gelatin and alginate-gelatin superabsorbents in order to solve the aforementioned challenges.

Materials & Methods:

 In this experimental study, superabsorbents were prepared through crosslinking with calcium chloride and then freeze-drying. Physical properties of the synthesized superabsorbents were evaluated using FE-SEM analysis as well as porosity percentage and swelling ratio tests. Cell compatibility of superabsorbents was assessed using the MTT assay. Hemolysis, Blood Coagulation Index (BCI), RBC attachment, and platelet adhesion tests were utilized to evaluate the in vitro hemolytic activity of superabsorbents. Further, in vivo femoral artery surgery studies on rats were performed to investigate the hemostatic efficiency of the synthesized superabsorbents.

In vitro hemostatic ability results verified that synthetic sponges have better hemostatic properties than commercial ones. The results of cytotoxicity test revealed that alginate, gelatin, and alginate-gelatin superabsorbents are fully non-toxic, and h due to having a survival percentage more than 89%, they have significant cellular compatibility. Finally, in vivo hemostatic tests showed that the synthesized superabsorbents performed better than commercial samples in terms of bleeding control and decreasing coagulation time, as the amount of blood loss and coagulation time for optimum alginate-gelatin superabsorbent decreased respectively by 1.71 and 1.96 times compared to ChitoCell and 1.37 and 1.55 times compared to Gelita.

According to the results of the current study, the optimum alginate-gelatin superabsorbent has substantial in vitro and in vivo hemostatic efficacy. These results show the potential of this superabsorbent to enter the stage of clinical studies.