According to a new study, an innovative approach called "click clotting" may help halt severe bleeding and save lives.
Researchers from the United States and Canada published their findings on the approach last month in Nature. The journal, in a complementary article, described the technique as "[snapping] cells together to staunch bleeding." The technique uses a person's own blood or donor blood and relies on a chemical reaction to form more robust, sticky clots.
"Natural blood clots can be slow to form and mechanically fragile, which limits their ability to stop severe bleeding and can compromise healing," said senior author Jianyu Li of McGill University in a press release. "Our work shows that, when engineered appropriately, red blood cells can play a central structural role, enabling the design of stronger and more functional biomaterials."
Click clotting generated clots that worked with naturally occurring clots yet were 13 times more resilient to breaking and four times more adhesive, according to the release. Li said that clots made with the patient's blood take around 20 minutes to prepare. Those made from a matched donor can take around 10 minutes.
The innovation comes after past research investigated the possibility of using shellfish-derived chitosan to build better clots. Those attempts failed due to fragile clots, broken cells, and unpredictable results — and though they used shellfish waste sustainably, the process came with some chemical pollution concerns that detracted from the advantages. Efforts like those of Li's team, meanwhile, may not only save lives but also exceed the performance of some animal-derived products.
In click clotting, a chemical reaction creates a solid gel that has been shown to stop bleeding in seconds — something that can take around five minutes in natural healing. In the press release, researchers called out the strong recovery of an injured liver as a standout achievement of the study.
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When doctors are under the gun in surgical and trauma situations, these stronger clots could make all the difference.
"With a better clot, you can help to very quickly stop the bleeding," Li told Global News. He continued, "That is a life-saving kind of technology."
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