The potential of bacterial cellulose as hemostatic material

Bacterial cellulose (BC) produced by Komagataeibacter exhibits suitable properties for biomedical applications. However, BC is not biodegradable being mandatory its chemical modification by oxidative methods, making it biodegradable when implanted in the human body. Tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO) radical has been applied to oxidize cellulose since allows the selective oxidation of the primary hydroxyl group at C6 into carboxyl groups. Thus, we aimed at developing a hemostatic material based on the oxidized BC. The oxidation of BC was achieved through electrochemical methods using TEMPO. The oxidation of the hydroxyl groups was analysed by FTIR and the selective oxidation of C6 was confirmed by 13C-NMR. SEM was used to assess the surface morphology of BC membranes and the in vitro degradation was investigated in ultra-pure water. The hemostatic behavior was evaluated using whole blood coagulation tests.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.