Hemocompatibility of Ca²⁺‐Crosslinked Nanocellulose Hydrogels: Toward Efficient Management of Hemostasis

Abstract

The present work investigates Ca -crosslinked nanofibrillated cellulose hydrogels as potential hemostatic wound dressings by studying core interactions between the materials and a central component of wounds and wound healing-the blood. Hydrogels of wood-derived anionic nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) and NFC hydrogels that incorporate kaolin or collagen are studied in an in vitro whole blood model and with platelet-free plasma assays. The evaluation of thrombin and factor XIIa formation, platelet reduction, and the release of activated complement system proteins, shows that the NFC hydrogel efficiently triggered blood coagulation, with a rapid onset of clot formation, while displaying basal complement system activation. By using the NFC hydrogel as a carrier of kaolin, the onset of hemostasis is further boosted, while the NFC hydrogel containing collagen exhibits blood activating properties comparable to the anionic NFC hydrogel. The herein studied NFC hydrogels demonstrate great potential for being part of advanced wound healing dressings that can be tuned to target certain wounds (e.g., strongly hemorrhaging ones) or specific phases of the wound healing process for optimal wound management.

Ion-Induced Synthesis of Alginate Fibroid Hydrogel for Heavy Metal Ions Removal

“…Natural sodium alginate (SA) was used as a macromolecule and Ca 2+ served as crosslinker for fabricating AFH (Xie et al, 2012;Basu et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2019). Figure 1 shows a schematic illustration for the preparation of AFH and its adsorption process for heavy metal ions.…”

Nanocellulose in Biotechnology and Medicine: Focus on Skin Tissue Engineering and Wound Healing

“…Wood-derived NFC (obtained from commercial never-dried bleached sulfite softwood dissolving pulp), crosslinked with calcium ions, also had hemostatic potential, especially when enriched with kaolin or collagen [55]. In addition, inflammatory response studies with blood-derived mononuclear cells revealed the inert nature of NFC hydrogels in terms of cytokine secretion and reactive oxygen species production.…”

Towards Tunable Protein-Carrier Wound Dressings Based on Nanocellulose Hydrogels Crosslinked with Calcium Ions

“…Through several recent studies, wound dressings based on wood-derived nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) hydrogels have been identified as promising candidates for advanced wound healing applications owing to their biocompatibility, hemocompatibility, and easily modifiable nature [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]. NFC consists of fibrils with a diameter of 3–5 nm and a length of several micrometers that arrange in aggregates of 20–50 nm due to strong intramolecular interactions [ 8 ].…”

“…The objective of this study is to investigate a Ca 2+ -crosslinked NFC hydrogel, previously described as a promising candidate for advanced wound healing dressings [ 1 , 2 , 3 ], as a potential carrier of proteins by (1) studying the profiles of loading and release of model proteins with various sizes and charges, (2) investigating the functional and structural stability of released proteins, and (3) understanding the effect of protein loading and release on the structural integrity of the NFC hydrogel. The results are foreseen to contribute to the understanding of how material-protein interactions may be used to develop advanced NFC dressings for the treatment of chronic wounds.…”