Nature paper engineers crosslinked red blood cell clots that form in seconds, achieving 13x fracture toughness and 4x adhesion energy vs native clots.
Key Takeaways
Engineered blood clots (EBCs) use bioorthogonal tetrazine-TCO chemistry to rapidly crosslink red blood cells into tough cytogels within seconds, bypassing slow coagulation cascades.
Fracture toughness increased 13-fold and adhesion energy 4-fold vs native clots; cell rupture under load is the identified toughening mechanism.
In vivo studies show EBCs halt hemorrhage, promote tissue regeneration, reduce inflammation and foreign body reactions, and prevent postoperative adhesion.
Both autologous and allogeneic EBC formulations were validated for safety and efficacy, broadening potential clinical applicability.
The crosslinking strategy generalizes to other cell types and polymers, suggesting a platform approach for highly cellularized biomaterials.
Hacker News Comment Review
No substantive HN discussion yet.
Notable Comments
@warbaker: Links to a non-paywalled preprint on ResearchSquare for access to the full paper.
