Hemostatic Tranexamic Acid-Induced Fast Gelation and Mechanical Reinforcement of Polydimethylacrylamide/Carboxymethyl Chitosan Hydrogel for Hemostasis and Wound Healing

The combinational properties with excellent mechanical properties, adhesive performance, hemostatic ability, antibacterial action, and wound healing efficacy are highly desirable for injectable hydrogels’ practical applications in hemorrhage control and wound closure, but designing one single hydrogel system integrating with such properties is still difficult. Herein, a simplified yet straightforward strategy is proposed to prepare an injectable and robust poly(N,N-dimethyl­acrylamide) (PDMAA)/carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) hydrogel induced by tranexamic acid (TXA). TXA not only promotes the rapid generation of free radicals but also introduces multiple hydrogen bonds into the hydrogel network. Moreover, as a common clinical hemostatic drug, TXA itself has excellent hemostatic effects. In addition, CMCS imparts sterilization and hemostasis effects to the hydrogel, thereby promoting wound healing. Besides, the amino and carboxyl groups on TXA molecules and the hydroxyl, amino, and carboxyl groups on CMCS molecules can form multiple hydrogen bonds with wet biological tissues, leading to good wet tissue adhesion of the hydrogel. As a result, the hydrogel with excellent mechanical properties (up to 1.83 MPa at 90% compression strain), adhesion performance (up to 18.7 kPa adhesion strength to porcine skin tissue), biocompatibility, hemostatic ability, antibacterial activity, and wound healing properties can be fabricated within several minutes. These combinational advantages enable the hydrogel to efficiently stop hemorrhage (blood loss amount: 110 mg; hemostasis time: 25 s) and promote the wound healing process (wound closure rate at 2 weeks: 83%), which can be verified using rat models of liver bleeding and infected full thickness skin defect. Overall, this facile strategy to design a hydrogel incorporating such unique advantages will greatly advance the hydrogel’s clinical application in rapid hemostasis and wound healing.