Biocompatibility and characteristics of injectable chitosan-based thermosensitive hydrogel for drug delivery

CS-αβ-GP thermosensitive hydrogel was prepared with chitosan and αβ-GP which could be transited into gel at 37 °C within 10 min. The hemolysis rate of blank CS-αβ-GP gel and CS-αβ-GP gel loaded with ADR was 1.37% and 1.32%, respectively. The injected CS-αβ-GP gel did not produce any significant changes in the haematology of SD rats such as white blood cell, red blood cell, platelet and the volume of haemoglobin. In addition, the levels of serum alanine aminotransferase, blood ureic nitrogen and creatinine had no obvious changes in SD rats of different groups. So the CS-αβ-GP hydrogel had good blood compatibility and had no hepatotoxicity or renal toxicity to SD rats. Furthermore, CS-αβ-GP hydrogel had good tissue compatibility according to the inflammatory reaction in SD rats. CS-αβ-GP thermosensitive hydrogel was a promising delivery system which might be used as a long-acting drug delivery vehicle.