Wet Adhesive Chitosan-Based Composite Hydrogel for Rapid Hemostasis

A lactose-modified chitosan （CTL）/4-arm polyethylene glycol succinate （4-arm-PEG-NHS） hydrogel （CPN） was meticulously formulated on the basis of amide bonds， utilizing a triad of key constituents： chitosan， lactose and 4-arm-PEG-NHS. The experimental results demonstrated that the CPN hydrogel was capable of rapidly establishing robust covalent bonds with pig skin （a representative of biological tissue） and firmly adhering to its surface. The viability of mouse fibroblast cells （L929） treated with CPN hydrogel extract for 1， 3 and 5 days was greater than 90%. Furthermore， the calcein acetoxymethyl ester/propidium iodide （calcein-AM/PI） double staining test also demonstrated that the CPN hydrogel exhibited excellent compatibility with cells. The hemolysis rate of CPN hydrogel dispersion was less than 5% at all test concentrations， indicating excellent hemocompatibility of the CPN hydrogel. In addition， the blood coagulation index （BCI） can reach 18.9% after 10 min in the coagulation test in vitro. In the Sprague-Dawley rat liver hemostasis model， the untreated rats required a mean of （145.6±29.7） s to achieve hemostasis， whereas those treated with CPN hydrogel required a mean of only （33.9±17.0） s. The bleeding loss of the untreated rats was （734.8±369.6） mg， whereas those of the rats treated with CPN hydrogel were significantly reduced to （71.2±20.2） mg. The results showed that the CPN hydrogel demonstrated excellent hemostatic properties， suggesting its potential application in hemostatic materials.