Immobilization of a Metal–Organic Framework on a Nanofiber Membrane as Artificial Platelets for Efficient Hemostasis

Medical hemostatic gauze is one of the most common agents for bleeding management used in pre-hospital care and clinical treatment. An ideal hemostat requires the features including fast coagulation ability, high biocompatibility and low cost, which is difficult to be achieved simultaneously. Herein, we reported a chemical immobilization method to uniformly anchor the zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) nanoparticles on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) membrane, which dramatically accelerated the in vivo conversion process of prothrombin to thrombin, achieving a short hemostasis time around 60 s with a low amount of blood loss of 23 mg. Later, the hemostatic mechanism was unveiled by two pathways involving the activation of platelets and the conversion of prothrombin, indicating that this ZIF-8-based membrane works in a similar way to natural platelet-based physiological processes. More importantly, the convenient manufacturing and excellent biocompatibility of ZIF-8-based membrane provide a practical candidate hemostat for clinical bleeding management.

Graphical Abstract

The chemical immobilization of ZIF-8 enables a tight combination between ZIF-8 particles and PVA fibers, which provides uniform distribution and dramatically enhances the stability in aqueous environment. This hemestasis gauze has been proven to play a role as an artificial platelet to promote the conversion of prothrombin into thrombin with 2-fold higher effiency than that of the common physiological process accompanied by a 10-fold activation rate for the activation of natural platelets