A team of researchers at McGill University in Montreal has developed a new way to stop bleeding much faster than the body normally can. In laboratory tests with rats, the new technique stopped bleeding from a liver wound in under five seconds. Natural blood clotting takes about four minutes.
The researchers call their invention "click clotting." It uses a special chemical reaction to link proteins on red blood cells together, creating a synthetic clot that is much stronger than a natural one. According to tests, the engineered clots are about 13 times more resistant to breaking and stick to wounded tissue four times better than natural clots.
The technique comes from "click chemistry," a method designed to join molecules together quickly and cleanly. The version used here works safely inside the human body without interfering with natural processes. Red blood cells, which normally carry oxygen, become the building blocks of the artificial clot.
The research team, led by Professor Jianyu Li, developed two versions of the treatment. One uses a patient's own blood and takes about 20 minutes to prepare. The other uses donor blood and takes about 10 minutes. So far, the technique has only been tested in laboratories and on rats. More research with human patients will be needed before doctors can use it in hospitals. However, the results suggest it could help save lives in trauma situations where uncontrolled bleeding is a serious problem.