An ultralong hydroxyapatite nanowire aerogel for rapid hemostasis and wound healing

Rapid hemostasis and wound healing for emergency trauma is the key to ensure the survival of patients with massive hemorrhage. However, it is still a challenge to develop hemostatic materials with both excellent hemostatic activity and wound healing function. Herein, we propose to fabricate an inorganic hemostatic aerogel mainly based on biocompatible inorganic ultralong hydroxyapatite (HAP) nanowires with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as organic binder, and the hemostatic aerogel is prepared by using freeze-drying technology to construct three-dimensional (3D) porous structure, which possesses good plasticity and flexibility. When the content of ultralong HAP nanowires reaches 80 wt%, the W-8HAP-2PVA aerogel (aerogel consists of 80 wt% ultralong HAP nanowires and 20 wt% PVA) exhibits super-hydrophilicity/super-hematophilicity, and its in vitro blood clotting index is only 3.81 ± 0.71 %, which is much lower than that of medical gauze. When applied in hemostasis of rat liver and rabbit femoral artery, the hemostatic time and blood loss amount of the W-8HAP-2PVA aerogel are 26.59 ± 7.46 s, 0.18 ± 0.05 g and 174.00 ± 16.57 s, 2.18 ± 1.56 g, respectively. Benefiting from its excellent hydrophilicity and high porosity structure, W-8HAP-2PVA aerogel can quickly absorb water from blood to concentrate blood cells and platelets and accelerate hemostasis. Notably, it shows good hemocompatibility and cytocompatibility, and is able to promote skin wound healing. Hence, W-8HAP-2PVA aerogel has great potential in rapid hemostasis and wound healing for clinical settings.