Internal bleeding can sometimes lead to very serious conditions. Scientists have been working on various ways for quite a while now to stop bleeding from such wounds. They just succeeded in making an injectable bandage made from very common food ingredients and nanoparticles. This new bandage will not only stop bleeding within minutes but will also help in healing the wound faster.

Injectable Bandage composition and function

Biomedical engineers at the Texas A&M University made this injectable bandage from a seaweed derived gelling agent and two dimensional clay nanoparticles. Combined these ingredients form ‘hydrogel’. It is jelly like in texture and is extremely absorbent. According to what the team wrote in their study, “Injectable hydrogels are promising materials for [..] internal injuries and bleeding, as these biomaterials can be introduced into a wound site using minimally invasive approaches.”

The main ingredient in this hydrogel is the k-carrageenan, a gelatinous substance derived from red edible seaweed. The researchers had discovered with the help of their previous discoveries that the hydrogels get boosted by the use of nanosilicates. These tiny particles improve the structure of the gel and make it into an amazing bandage. The bandage was tested on animal and human tissue cells and it was observed that the hydrogel starts blood clotting in less than 3 minutes!

“An ideal injectable bandage should solidify after injection in the wound area and promote a natural clotting cascade,” explains biomedical engineer Akhilesh K. Gaharwar from Texas A&M. The team alos observed better healing in the lab samples. They also realized that the same nanoparticles could be used to deliver medication to the wound site.
The wound hasn’t been tested on real human wounds yet but there is a good chance that this experiment will succeed and we will have access to injectable bandages.

You can read up this study in detail at Acta Biomaterialia.

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