Haemostatic potency of sodium alginate/aloe vera/sericin composite scaffolds – preparation, characterisation, and evaluation

Abstract

Fabrication of haemostatic materials with excellent antimicrobial, biocompatible and biodegradable properties remains as a major challenge in the field of medicine. Haemostatic agents play vital role in protecting patients and military individuals during emergency situations. Natural polymers serve as promising materials for fabricating haemostatic compounds due to their efficacy in promoting hemostasis and wound healing. In the present work, sodium alginate/aloe vera/sericin (SA/AV/S) scaffold has been fabricated using a simple cost-effective casting method. The prepared SA/AV/S scaffolds were characterised for their physicochemical properties such as scanning electron microscope, UV–visible spectroscopy and Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy. SA/AV/S scaffold showed good mechanical strength, swelling behaviour and antibacterial activity. In vitro experiments using erythrocytes proved the hemocompatible and biocompatible features of SA/AV/S scaffold. In vitro blood clotting assay performed using human blood demonstrated the haemostatic and blood absorption properties of SA/AV/S scaffold. Scratch wound assay was performed to study the wound healing efficacy of prepared scaffolds. Chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane assay carried out using fertilised embryos proved the angiogenic property of SA/AV/S scaffold. Thus, SA/AV/S scaffold could serve as a potential haemostatic healthcare product due to its outstanding haemostatic, antimicrobial, hemocompatible, biocompatible and angiogenic properties.

Graphical abstract

Keywords:

• Sericin
• scaffold
• hemostasis
• biocompatible
• angiogenesis

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Chettinad Academy of Research and Education for providing financial support to carry out the research work.

Author contributions

Jayavardhini Bhoopathy – Investigation, methodology, writing original draft; Weslen Vedakumari Sathyaraj – Conceptualisation, supervision, writing – review & editing; Beryl Vedha Yesudhason – Investigation; Methodology, Selvarajan Rajendran – Methodology; Sankari Dharmalingam – Methodology, Jayashri Seetharaman – Methodology; Ranjitha Muthu – Investigation, Methodology; Ramachandran Murugesan – Investigation, Subramanian Raghunandhakumar – Investigation, Methodology; Suresh Kumar Anandasadagopan – Investigation, Methodology.

Ethical statement

The authors declare that the human blood was drawn from patients with consent, and approval was made verbally for this study. Institutional Human Ethics Committee (Ref No. IHEC-II/0384/23) at Chettinad Academy of Research and Education was obtained for drawing 10 ml of blood from human participants. No animals were used in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The authors state that all data related to this study are available within the article.

Additional information

Funding

The author, Weslen Vedakumari Sathyaraj, acknowledges the funding support received from Chettinad Academy of Research and Education under CARE Seed Research Grant – Ref. No. 004/Regr./AR-Research/2022-03.