DNA hydrogel based Wound Hemostatic Adjuvant

Severe traumatic bleeding may lead to extremely high mortality rates, and early intervention to stop bleeding plays as a critical role in saving lives. However, rapid hemostasis in deep non-compressible trauma using a highly water-absorbent hydrogel, combined with strong tissue adhesion and bionic procoagulant mechanism, remains a challenge. In this study, a DNA hydrogel (DNAgel) network composed of natural nucleic acids with rapid water absorption, high swelling and instant tissue adhesion is reported, like a “band-aid” to physically stop bleeding. The excellent swelling behavior and robust mechanical performance, meanwhile, enable the DNAgel band-aid to fill the defect cavity and exert pressure on the bleeding vessels, thereby achieving “compression hemostasis” for deep tissue bleeding sites. The DNAgel network also acts as an artificial DNA scaffold for erythrocytes to adhere and aggregate, and activates platelets, promoting coagulation cascade in a bionic way. The DNAgel achieves lower blood loss than commercial gelatin sponge (GS) in rat trauma models. In vivo evaluation in a full-thickness skin incision model also demonstrated the ability of DNAgel for promoting wound healing. Overall, the DNAgel band-aid with great hemostatic capacity is a promising candidate for rapid hemostasis and wound healing. The fresh whole blood of rats was collected and incubated with DNAgel and GS for 15 min, respectively. The high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and transcriptome analysis were performed by LC-BIO Bio-tech Ltd (Hangzhou, China). Bioinformatic analysis was performed using the OmicStudio tools at https://www.omicstudio.cn. The volcano plot, heatmap and GSEA plot were drawn based on the R version 4.1.3 (2022-03-10) on the OmicStudio platform.