Scientists Make Synthetic Blood Clots That Could Stop Internal Bleeding To Save Lives

Internal bleeding has historically been a factor in many fatalities following accidents or other traumatic injuries.

Researchers at MIT have created a synthetic system that can stop internal bleeding in an effort to enable more individuals survive long enough to get to a hospital after a serious accident.

They have designed a two-component material that can be injected into the body and help form blood clots at the sites of internal injury.

These materials, which mimic the way that the body naturally forms clots, could offer a way to keep people with severe internal injuries alive until they can reach a hospital, the researchers said.

The study, published in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials, showed that these components-a nanoparticle and a polymer-performed significantly better in a mouse model of internal injury than hemostatic nanoparticles that were developed earlier.

"What was especially remarkable about these results was the level of recovery from severe injury we saw in the animal studies. By introducing two complementary systems in sequence it is possible to get a much stronger clot," said Paula Hammond, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, and one of the senior authors of a paper on the study.

Unlike previously developed hemostatic systems, the new technology mimics the actions of both platelets-the cells that initiate blood clotting-and fibrinogen, a protein that helps forms clots.

"The idea of using two components allows selective gelation of the hemostatic system as the concentration is enhanced in the wound, mimicking the end effect of the natural clotting cascade," said Bradley Olsen, a professor at MIT and a senior author of the study.

When internal injuries occur, platelets are attracted to the site and initiate the blood clotting cascade, which eventually forms a sticky plug of platelets and clotting proteins, including fibrinogen.

However, if patients are losing a lot of blood, they don't have enough platelets or fibrinogen to form clots, the researchers said.

The MIT team wanted to create an artificial system that could help save people's lives by replacing both of those clotting components, they said.

To achieve that, the researchers created a system with two types of materials: a nanoparticle that recruits platelets and a polymer that mimics fibrinogen. For the platelet-recruiting particles, the researchers used particles similar to those they reported in a 2022 study.

These particles are made of a biocompatible polymer called PEG-PLGA, which are functionalised with a peptide called GRGDS that allows them to bind to activated platelets, the researchers said.

Because platelets are drawn to the site of an injury, these particles also tend to accumulate at injury sites, they said. 

(With inputs from PTI)