Nanoparticles Can Stop Bleeding Faster

According to a recent study, Japanese scientists have successfully used nanoparticles to stop bleeding  in laboratory animals. During traumatic injuries, blood vessels are damaged and this  results in bleeding. During this time platelets, get activated and stop the  bleeding.  This is followed by a clot formation.

A team of scientists from the National Defense Medical College in Japan have successfully  injected platelet-activating substances into liposomes. They, then,  attached different substances, that were about  200 nanometers,  to the liposome surface to help them to  stick to the platelets.

During the  experiment, the livers of the  laboratory rabbits were  traumatized. All the injured animals died, except for the 10 rabbits  that were injected with 20 mg of the nanoparticles per kilogram of their body weight.

One nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. Nanoparticles are particles with just one dimension, in other words they are 100 nanometers or less in size. The success of nanoparticles is due to their  greater surface area per weight in comparison to larger particles and this enables them to be more reactive to other molecules.

Nanoparticles  are frequently used in cancer therapy , where they are  used to directly deliver drugs to cancer cells. These high –benefit particles may be preserved for half a year unlike platelets, which can only be preserved for a week. Besides, nanoparticles can be mass produced too.

The new treatment is  believed to be useful to those who are victims of traumatic bleeding caused by serious  injuries.   But it would take a while for the practice to be kick-started, as clinical tests are required to be carried out to deem it viable for humans.

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Source-Medindia