American researchers have successfully developed synthetic platelets that will aid in reducing external and internal bleeding that is often fatal.
The team led by Erin Lavik, a Case Western Reserve University biomedical engineering professor and her former doctoral student, James P. Bertram achieved the feat.
Researchers hit on the idea of synthetic platelets to help treat soldiers injured in wars.
Lavik said: "The military has been phenomenal at developing technology to halt bleeding, but the technology has been effective only on external or compressible injuries.... This could be a compliment to current therapies."
Bertram and Lavik used biodegradable polymers to make synthetic platelets. These have been designed to bond with natural platelets at the site of an injury.
The research has appeared in Science Translational Medicine.
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