Biodegradable self-gelling powder of quaternized chitin/sodium hyaluronate for rapid hemostasis

Rapid and effective hemostasis for unknown bleeding points and irregularly shaped wounds is very important. Here, water-soluble quaternized chitin (QC2) with relatively low hemolysis ratio was synthesized homogeneously in NaOH/urea aqueous solution. Then a novel self-gelling hemostatic powder was prepared based on QC2 and sodium hyaluronate (HA) through simply mixing the QC2 aqueous solution with HA aqueous solution, freeze-drying and grinding. The obtained QC2/HA powder can quickly transform into a gel via electrostatic interaction after absorbing blood, and adhere to the wound surface, concentrating blood cells and platelets to trigger coagulation and preventing blood loss. The QC2/HA powder could adhere to wet tissue after absorbing interfacial water showing good tissue adhesion property and good coagulation effect in vitro, which are important for effective hemostatic materials. The formed QC2/HA hydrogel displayed good self-healing feature due to the reversible electrostatic interaction, and good biodegradability and biocompatibility. Moreover, in the rat tail and rat liver models, the QC2_2.5/HA₁ self-gelling powder showed much better hemostatic effect than the blank control and the traditional hemostatic chitosan. Therefore, we believe that the QC2_2.5/HA₁ powder has great potential as a new biodegradable hemostatic material in the future.