(188v) Bio-Ionic Liquid Conjugated Gels (BiGEL): Hemostatic, Antimicrobial and Highly Adhesive Hydrogel

Soft tissues and skeletal muscles are often involved in traumatic injury in cases of accidents, gunshot wounds, and blast injuries. Death rates are high especially for patients involved in severe trauma due to complications associated with such injuries during the early stages of trauma. An estimated 80% of military deaths in such cases are caused by severe hemorrhagic loss of blood. Patients suffering from severe burns and skin injuries still carry high death rates due to complications in the early stages of trauma. Thus, the very onset of management of severe trauma is the cessation of bleeding and prevention of excessive loss of body fluids, in addition to ensuring the protection of the injured sites from pathogenic attack leading especially in septic conditions by proper coverage (2). Stable blood clot formation, also known as hemostasis is the essential basis for preventing blood loss and hence death from excessive bleeding. The body has its own coagulation process divided into primary hemostasis and the coagulation cascade. This converts the blood into stable and insoluble fibrin to enable hemostasis. In cases of severe trauma, however, the organic rate of hemostasis, without assistance from external hemostatic devices and agents, is not rapid enough to prevent excessive loss of blood.

In this study, we aimed to address these limitations by engineering a highly sticky, antibacterial, and biodegradable hemostatic adhesive based on visible light photo-curable Bio-Ionic liquid (BILs) functionalized gelatin hydrogel (BiGel). Our preliminary data shows significant improvement in adhesive properties of the hydrogel by conjugation with BILs. We showed that the ion bonding interaction between the BILs conjugated hydrogel and the tissue significantly enhance the adhesion properties. Also, our initial data shows the significant enhancement in the hemostatic properties of the hydrogel by conjugation with choline BILs due to the unique electrostatic interaction between the choline based BILs hydrogel and blood cells. Also, we showed that the conjugation of BILs to hydrogel significantly improve the antibacterial properties. The engineered BiGel hemostatic adhesives can be used to treat traumatic injuries and also support new tissue formation to repair the defected sites.