Development and assessment of kerateine nanoparticles for use as a hemostatic agent

• The kerateine nanoparticles were prepared via modified ultrasonic solidification method.
• The kerateine nanoparticle can stop the tail and liver bleeding within 2 min and 1 min, respectively.
• The kerateine nanoparticles showed a stronger hemostatic efficacy than powders because of higher specific surface area.

Uncontrolled bleeding frequently occurs in some emergencies which can result in severe injury and even death. Keratin hydrogel has been found that it had good ahemostatic efficacy in the previous studies. However, an ideal hemostatic agent should not require mixing or preparation in advance, and hydrogel is not easy to store and carry. In the present study, the kerateine was firstly extracted from human hair, and then was prepared nanoparticles by a modified emulsion diffusion method. The synthesized nanoparticles showed spherical morphology with an average diameter of approximately 200 nm. The results of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction indicated that the chemical structure of kerateine did not change but the crystal form may be transformed in the nanoparticles. In addition, kerateine nanoparticles displayed a faster clotting time in vitro study than the kerateine extracts. Furthermore, kerateine nanoparticles significantly reduced the blood loss and coagulation time in the liver puncture and tail amputation in rat models. Our results indicated that kerateine nanoparticles could quickly form a high viscosity gel onto the wound and accelerate the blood coagulation based on their high specific surface area. Therefore, kerateine nanoparticles have great potential for hemostatic application.

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