Thermosensitive Chitosan/Gelatin Hydrogels in Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine: A Prospective Review on Modernizing Acupoint Embedding

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Thermosensitive hydrogels have emerged as promising intelligent biomaterials for minimally invasive delivery and targeted therapy. Chitosan/gelatin thermosensitive hydrogels, integrating the biocompatibility, biodegradability, and antibacterial activity of chitosan with the excellent adhesive properties of gelatin, exhibit unique injectability, temperature-responsive gelation, and tunable physicochemical properties. This review systematically summarizes the key performance parameters of chitosan/gelatin thermosensitive hydrogels, including injectability, gelation characteristics (with sol-gel transition tunable between 37 and 42 °C to match diverse species' body temperatures), mechanical properties, biocompatibility, degradation behavior (tunable from 1 to 8 weeks), drug-loading/release capabilities, and multi-stimuli responsiveness (pH/ROS/enzyme). It focuses on exploring their feasibility and suitability as acupoint embedding materials in Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM), addressing the technical bottlenecks of traditional acupoint catgut embedding (e.g., unstable degradation, insufficient biocompatibility, and lack of drug-loading capacity). While recent studies have demonstrated the utility of such hydrogels in human disease models (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis and Parkinson's disease), their translation to veterinary acupoint therapy remains largely unexplored.

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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