Fabricating antimicrobial peptide-immobilized starch sponges for hemorrhage control and antibacterial treatment

[Display omitted] •Biocompatible macroporous sponges were developed from modified starch and HS-PEG-SH.•The sponges were covalently immobilized with antimicrobial peptide.•The sponges showed high fluid absorption capacity and well mechanical strength.•Antimicrobial peptide endowed sponges with effective and inherent antibacterial activity.•The sponges achieved high hemostasis and infection prevention simultaneously. It is important to control immediate hemorrhage and prevent infection simultaneously in the wound management. However, most of hemostatic materials are associated with low efficiency of hemostasis, poor biocompatibility and lack of antimicrobial properties. A kind of starch-based macroporous sponges (KR-Sps) immobilized covalently with antimicrobial peptide KR12 using highly efficient thiol-ene photo click reaction were developed. The physical properties of these sponges could be fine-tuned by varying the ratio of modified starch/HS-PEG-SH and the polymer concentration. The in vitro and vivo results demonstrated that KR-Sps induced thrombosis, shortened clotting time and reduced the blood loss at bleeding site. Besides, KR12 immobilized sponge exhibited inherent antimicrobial properties against Gram (+) and (−) bacteria and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which could maintain at least 5 days. Therefore, KR-Sps were believed to be an excellent candidate as hemostatic and antimicrobial product for the intraoperative wound management.