A research group of clinicians at Shinya Okata Hospital, University of Tokyo Hospital, has newly designed a synthetic hydrogel that solidifies instantly when it comes into contact with body fluids, and demonstrated that it is possible to stop bleeding quickly even during heavy bleeding. ..

 Bleeding control is extremely important in surgery.Mild bleeding is stopped by a natural blood coagulation reaction, but pressure bleeding with a hemostatic agent is required for bleeding from large veins and arteries.However, existing hemostatic agents impose a burden on both doctors and patients because it takes a long time to stop bleeding and there is a possibility of transmission of infectious diseases derived from human blood components.

 The research group has designed a new synthetic hydrogel that quickly self-solidifies when in contact with body fluids.This synthetic hydrogel is initially a liquid, but when it comes into contact with blood, which is a type of body fluid, it instantly causes solidification involving blood, leading to hemostasis.When the developed synthetic hydrogel was brought into contact with the blood of rats to which an anticoagulant was added, it was confirmed that the blood was instantly solidified.

 In addition, in a rat model of massive inferior vena cava bleeding, a stable hemostatic effect was obtained in 1 minute.Furthermore, evaluation one week after hemostasis showed that the inflammatory response was milder than that of existing hemostatic agents.

 The newly developed synthetic hydrogel can solidify blood by a mechanism of action independent of the blood coagulation reaction of the living body.Therefore, there is a possibility that a local hemostasis material that can quickly stop bleeding can be developed even when the blood is difficult to clot due to other diseases or anticoagulants.In addition, it is widely expected to be applied as a material for preventing leakage of various body fluids such as cerebrospinal fluid.Furthermore, because it is a synthetic material, it is possible to deny the contamination of unknown viruses, which contributes to reducing the mental burden on both doctors and patients.

Paper information:[Annals of Vascular Surgery] In vivo hemostatic capability of a novel Tetra-PEG hydrogel

Tokyo University

Established in the 10th year of the Meiji era.A university with the longest history in Japan and at the forefront of Japanese knowledge

The University of Tokyo was established in 1877 (Meiji 10) by integrating the Tokyo Kaisei School and the Tokyo Medical School.Since its establishment, it has developed education and research in a unique way in the world as a leading university in Japan and an academic center for the fusion of East and West cultures.As a result, many human resources have been produced in a wide range of fields, and many research achievements […]

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