Cover the wound with clay
A healing bandage for wounds has been developed
Anton Bugaichuk, Naked Science
Penetrating wounds pose a great danger, especially in combat conditions. It is very important to stop the bleeding in time and, if possible, ensure disinfection of the wound. It is highly desirable that these primary actions do not require medical personnel, ideally everything should be done independently.
Scientists from Texas Agricultural and Technical University have developed a new dressing nanomaterial based on a conventional food thickener and, in fact, ordinary clay. Dr. Akhilesh K. Gahavo (Akhilesh K. Gaharwar) explains:
"Injectable hydrogels are promising materials for achieving hemostasis in internal injuries and bleeding, since these biomaterials can be injected into the wound site using minimally invasive approaches. The ideal injection dressing should harden after injection in the wound area and promote natural blood clotting. In addition, it should initiate a healing reaction after reaching hemostasis."
To obtain a hydrogel, a kappa-carrageenan thickener was used, which is obtained from the seaweed Chondrus crispus. It is also called carrageenan. Chemically, it consists of sulfate polysaccharides of linear structure and is used as a food additive E-407. The hydrogel itself is a three—dimensional polymer network swollen with water, which resembles the structure of human tissues.
Visible hydrogel structure / © Texas A&M University
Layered aluminosilicates are well suited for this jelly-like mass as a filler that creates dispersion at the nanoscale. Simply put, certain types of purified clay.
By mixing kappa-carrageenan with aluminosilicate nanoparticles, a gel is obtained that can not only be applied to the wound, but also injected inside. This eliminates the possibility of further contamination of the wound, the gel itself covers the blood, and silicate nanoparticles work as absorption centers of blood proteins, which contributes to its rapid clotting.
In addition, they found another useful effect: you can use a negative charge on nanoparticles to slow down the release of drugs if you supplement such a bandage with them. That is, their effect will be prolonged, which in many cases is important from a medical point of view.
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