Biomedical engineers have developed a miniature self-sealing model system for studying bleeding and the clotting of wounds. The researchers envision the device as a drug discovery platform and potential diagnostic tool.
A description of the system, and representative movies, were published Tuesday online by Nature Communications.
Lead author Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD says that blood clotting involves the damaged blood vessel, platelets, blood clotting proteins that form a net-like mesh, and the flow of the blood itself.
“Current methods to study blood clotting require isolation of each of these components, which prevents us from seeing the big picture of what’s going with the patient’s blood clotting system,” says Lam, assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University read more
Screenshot from video showing blood cells streaming through a “wound” and a clot forming. The red-stained cells are actually white blood cells. A green extracellular glue can be seen at the top of the wound; this is fibrin, which holds the clot together. See the full video at: https://youtu.be/l7k1dGfKG0g