As a minimally invasive method, endovascular embolization has been an effective strategy for controlling bleeding and tumor treatment. Herein, carboxymethyl chitin embolic microspheres were prepared with the aqueous two-phase carboxymethyl chitin/polyethylene glycol system without using any crosslinking agents and thrombin-functionalized embolic microsphere named as Thr@CMCHm-30 was made after covalent introduction of thrombin. The size of the microspheres can be adjusted from 5 to 500 μm. The data of in vitro and in vivo tests indicated that these microspheres possessed good degradability and biocompatibility. Meanwhile, Thr@CMCHm-30 can significantly promote blood clotting and enhance the strength of the blood clots. More importantly, Thr@CMCHm-30 displayed better embolization effect than that of the commercial available Gelfoam Alicon® and polyvinyl alcohol-based embolic microspheres CalliSpheres® in rat femoral vein and rabbit ear artery embolization models. Therefore the size-tunable and biodegradable thrombin-functionalized carboxymethyl chitin microspheres Thr@CMCHm-30 possess great potential for effective hemostasis and endovascular embolization.

作为一种微创方法，血管内栓塞术一直是控制出血和肿瘤治疗的有效策略。在此，在不使用任何交联剂的情况下，使用水性两相羧甲基几丁质/聚乙二醇体系制备了羧甲基几丁质栓塞微球，并在共价引入凝血酶后制备了名为Thr@CMCHm-30的凝血酶功能化栓塞微球。微球的尺寸可以在 5 到 500 μm 之间调整。体外和体内试验数据表明，这些微球具有良好的降解性和生物相容性。同时，Thr@CMCHm-30可以显着促进血液凝固，增强血栓的强度。更重要的是，在大鼠股静脉和兔耳动脉栓塞模型中，Thr@CMCHm-30 的栓塞效果优于市售的 Gelfoam Alicon® 和聚乙烯醇基栓塞微球 CalliSpheres®。因此，尺寸可调且可生物降解的凝血酶功能化羧甲基甲壳素微球Thr@CMCHm-30在有效止血和血管内栓塞方面具有巨大潜力。