Electrical stimulation of certain nerves could offer a new approach to reducing severe bleeding. A recent study explored the impact of transcutaneous stimulation of the auricular vagus nerve or a combination of the vagus and trigeminal nerves on platelet function and coagulation parameters in healthy volunteers.<\/p>\n
Bleeding, whether due to trauma or surgery, remains a major cause of mortality worldwide. Despite medical advances, current solutions, such as tourniquets or pharmacological agents, have limitations. They often act too late or poorly target non-compressible areas, while risking tissue damage or causing unwanted clots elsewhere in the body. Worse still, no approved method currently allows direct stimulation of platelets, these cells essential for clot formation.<\/p>\n
Bioelectronic medicine, which uses electrical signals to modulate nervous system activity, opens new perspectives. Previous research had already shown that vagus nerve stimulation reduced bleeding in animals by acting on splenic lymphocytes, which release acetylcholine. This molecule then activates nicotinic receptors on platelets, increasing their intracellular calcium concentration. This process, called priming<\/em>, prepares platelets to react more quickly in case of injury, thereby accelerating clot formation.<\/p>\n In this study, 24 healthy adults received either transcutaneous stimulation of the auricular vagus nerve or combined stimulation of the vagus and trigeminal nerves. The results revealed that both methods activate platelets, but through distinct mechanisms. Auricular vagus nerve stimulation accelerates their response to collagen, a key protein in coagulation, while combined stimulation enhances their sensitivity to ADP, another molecule involved in platelet aggregation.<\/p>\n Additionally, auricular vagus nerve stimulation demonstrated a notable effect on coagulation kinetics. It reduces the time required for clot initiation, propagation, and stabilization, as measured by thromboelastography, a technique that assesses the strength and speed of clot formation. No adverse effects were observed in participants, confirming the tolerance of these approaches.<\/p>\n These findings suggest that nerve stimulation could become a non-invasive solution to improve coagulation, particularly in contexts where bleeding is difficult to control, such as severe trauma, surgeries, or certain hemorrhagic diseases. Although further clinical trials are needed to validate these results, this study marks an important step toward more effective and safer treatments for hemorrhage.<\/p>\n DOI:<\/strong> https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/s42234-026-00208-w<\/a><\/p>\n Title:<\/strong> Effects of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation or combined vagal and trigeminal nerve stimulation on platelet function and laboratory hemostasis parameters in healthy human subjects<\/p>\n Journal:<\/strong> Bioelectronic Medicine<\/p>\n Publisher:<\/strong> Springer Science and Business Media LLC<\/p>\n Authors:<\/strong> Jared M. Huston; Carlos E. Bravo-I\u00f1iguez; Julien Papoin; Maaryj Ahmad; Brooke Le; Isabella Mirro; Melanie McWade; Caroline Benner; Alejandro Covalin; Christopher J. Czura; Navid Khodaparast; Lionel Blanc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nerve stimulation improves blood clotting Electrical stimulation of certain nerves could offer a new approach to reducing severe bleeding. A recent study explored the impact of transcutaneous stimulation of the auricular vagus nerve or a combination of the vagus and trigeminal nerves on platelet function and coagulation parameters in healthy volunteers. Bleeding, whether due to… Continue reading Nerve stimulation improves blood clotting<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-international","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themedicinereview.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themedicinereview.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themedicinereview.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themedicinereview.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themedicinereview.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/themedicinereview.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60,"href":"https:\/\/themedicinereview.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions\/60"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themedicinereview.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themedicinereview.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themedicinereview.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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