A new solution making use of nanotechnology has been found to significantly reduce hemostasis in animal models.¹ Researchers told the journal Nanomedicine: “With this discovery the ability to speedily achieve hemostasis will reduce radically the quantity of blood needed during surgery of the future”.

Dr Ellis-Behnke and his team in USA and Hong Kong have developed a solution which produces a nanofibre barrier when in contact with any wet environment in the body. The material consists of non-toxic and non-immunogenic self-assembling peptide units which may be broken down into l-amino acids and used for tissue repair.

Researchers used adult rats to mimic a cortical vessel cut, femoral artery cuts, spinal cord injury, liver wounds and deep skin wounds. Studies demonstrated that haemostasis could be achieved in under 15 seconds (see figure 1), thus producing a significant reduction in bleeding duration.

Traditionally haemostasis is achieved by applying pressure, then cauterization, ligation and clinically induced vasoconstriction. Using nanotechnology, the limitations associated with current haemostatic agents (namely, inability to flow into area of injury, requirement of dry environment to be effective, adverse immune response, short shelf-life and difficulty of usage in uncontrolled environments), are overcome. Furthermore, the amino acid breakdown products of this novel therapy can be used for tissue repair.
 
As yet, the mechanism by which the solution works is not clear. However it has been revealed that it is not clotting, but rather peptide barrier formation that stops the blood flow, and breakdown products of this barrier that are used for repair by adjacent cells.


 

Figure 1: Graph to illustrate bleeding durations in cases treated with 1% NHS-1 self-assembling solution compared with those saline-treated controls for brain, spinal cord, femoral artery, and liver cuts

References
1.  Ellis-Behnke RG, Liang YX, Tay DKC, Kau PWF, Schneider GE, Zhang S, Wu W, So KF. Nano hemostat solution: immediate hemostasis at the nanoscale. Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine. December 2006 (Vol. 2, Issue 4, Pages 207-215)

Jaish Kumar Puri, BSc
Medical Student
King’s College London