(162l) Hemostatic Antibacterial Adhesive Hydrogel for Sutureless Tissue Sealing

Introduction: Uncontrolled bleeding and bacterial infection in surgical settings and wound treatment procedure often leads to significant clinical and economic impact. Surgical bleeding and infection if not controlled in a timely manner can prolong duration of surgery, post-surgical healing and sometimes lead to fatality. Developing multifunctional biomaterials that quickly and effectively seal the defect compared to sutures, reduce the risk of infection and blood loss is an unmet medical need. Here, we aim to nanoengineer the emerging biopolymers for tissue sealing, gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) with silicate nanoplatelets (SNs) and zinc ferrite (ZF) nanoparticles to prepare hemostatic and antibacterial sealant. In this multifunctional hydrogel, GelMA as a naturally derived biopolymer secure bioadhesion, biodegradation, and biocompatibility; whereas, SNs render the hydrogel hemostatic and ZF make it antibacterial.

Materials and Methods: GelMA and ZF were synthesized as explained in our previous publications. Different concentrations of SNs (10, 20 and 30 mg/ml) and varying concentrations of ZF (0-1.5 mg/ml) were added to GelMA and hydrogels were prepared by visible-light mediated crosslinking for 4 min. Physical, chemical, antibacterial, hemostatic and adhesive properties of the hydrogels were thoroughly characterized.

Results and Discussion: These multifunctional hydrogels exhibit faster swelling and degradation, and similar or superior mechanical properties compared to GelMA. Adding 1.5 mg/ml ZF endowed ~ 93% antibacterial activity to the GelMA hydrogel (Figure 1a,b) and with 20 mg/ml SNs blood clotting time of the hydrogel increased by ~40% (Figure 1c,d). In accordance with standard burst pressure test, increasing SNs concentration improved sealing efficacy of the hydrogels, and more interestingly combination of SNs and ZF with GelMA could further enhance burst strength of the hydrogel by >1.5 fold of a stand-alone GelMA (Figure 1e,f). Furthermore, our multifunctional hydrogels were biocompatible and could significantly enhance hemostasis and showed better therapeutic impact than the commercially available Surgicel absorbable hemostat in a rat liver bleeding model.

Conclusions: The synergistic contribution of SNs and ZF nanoparticles to the adhesion, hemostatic and antibacterial properties of GelMA renders our multifunctional hydrogel suitable for sealing applications, especially for the tissues which are more prone to bleeding and bacterial infection and paves the way for the fabrication of the next generation of low cost multifunction biopolymers for sutureless sealing of tissues.