Microstructure-united heterogeneous sodium alginate doped injectable hydrogel for stable hemostasis in dynamic mechanical environments

Abstract

Injectable hydrogels that can withstand compressive and tensile forces hold great promise for preventing rebleeding in dynamic mechanical environments after emergency hemostasis of wounds. However, current injectable hydrogels often lack sufficient compressive or tensile performance. Here, a microstructure-united heterogeneous injectable hydrogel (MH) was constructed. The heterogeneous structure endowed MH with a unique “microstructures consecutive transmission” feature, which allowed it to exhibit high compressive and tensile performance simultaneously. In this work, two types of sodium alginate doped hydrogels with different microstructures were physically smashed into microgels, respectively. By mixing the microgels, MH with one micro-pores featured microstructure and another nano-pores featured microstructure can be formed. The obtained MH can withstand both compressive and tensile forces and showed high mechanical performance (compressive modulus: 345.67 ± 10.12 kPa and tensile modulus: 245.19 ± 7.82 kPa). Furtherly, MH was proven to provide stable and sustained hemostasis in the dynamic mechanical environment. Overall, this work provided an effective strategy for constructing injectable hydrogel with high compressive and tensile performance for hemostasis in dynamic mechanical environments.