Corn stalk/AgNPs modified chitin composite hemostatic sponge with high absorbency, rapid shape recovery and promoting wound healing ability

Abstract

• Loose corn stalk (CS) is used to adjust the structure and property of chitin (CH) sponge. • AgNPs reduced and stabilized by CS is used to endow CH with antibacterial activity. • CH/CS/AgNPs sponge exhibit through-hole porous structure and soft compressibility. • CH/CS/AgNPs show higher blood absorption and hemostatic efficiency than CH and PVF. • CH/CS/AgNPs don’t cause inflammation and exhibit biocompatibility and nontoxicity. Uncontrolled hemorrhage before hospitalization and infection are two great challenges for the safety of human life. Although chitin (CH) is a kind of effective hemostatic materials, it presents poor softness and antibacterial activity, which hinders its potential application. Herein, for the first time, loose corn stalk (CS) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were used to adjust the dense structures and poor antibacterial activities of solo chitin sponge. And then the crosslinked CH/CS/AgNPs sponge was used as antibacterial hemostatic material. The results show that the blood absorbing ratio of CH/CS/AgNPs was 2.4-fold and 2.7-fold higher than those of solo CH and commercial polyvinyl formal sponge (PVF), respectively. In vitro blood clotting index (19%) of CH/CS/AgNPs was also lower than those of solo CH (45%) and PVF (65%). In vivo rat liver injury results further indicate that the sponge had high hemostatic efficiency without causing inflammation. Besides, the cytotoxicity assay and hemolysis (3.18%) exhibited favorable biocompatibility and nontoxicity. Notably, the sponge showed excellent antibacterial properties against E. coli and S. aureus and the wound closure rate treated by CH/CS/AgNPs sponge reached to 76.5% after 11 days. This work proposes new ideas for the study of antibacterial hemostatic materials by introducing agricultural waste into medical hemostatic field.