Investigation of the Effects of Molecular Parameters on the Hemostatic Properties of Chitosan

Hemorrhea is one of the major problems in war, trauma care, and surgical operation that threaten the life of the injured and patients. As a novel polymeric hemostatic agent, biodegradable chitosan can stop bleeding through a variety of approaches. In this paper, chitosan with various molecular parameters was prepared from chitin as raw material through deacetylation, oxidative degradation, hydrophilic modification, and salt formation reactions. The influence of different polymer parameters on the hemostatic effects of chitosan was investigated by in vitro coagulation time and dynamic coagulation assay. The results showed that when the molecular weights were high (105–106) and approximate, the coagulation effect of chitosan improved with a decrease of the deacetylation degree and achieved a prominent level in a moderate degree of deacetylation (68.36%). With the same degree of deacetylation, the higher the molecular weight of chitosan, the better the procoagulant effect. The substituent derivatives and acid salts of chitosan showed significant procoagulant effects, especially the acid salts of chitosan. In addition, the hemostasis mechanism of chitosan with various parameters was preliminarily explored by analyzing the plasma recalcification time (PRT). The efforts in this paper laid a basis for further study of the structure–activity relationship and the mechanism of chitosan hemostasis.