BACKGROUND: At present, alginate fiber possesses various forms and functions, which is increasingly used in biomedicine and clinical medicine. OBJECTIVE: To comprehensively review the structure and feature of alginate fiber and to introduce the biomedical application of its blend fiber with chitosan or gelation. METHODS: PubMed database and Wanfang database were retrieved by the first author for literature about alginate fiber production process, the alginate fiber structure and properties, biomedical application of alginate fiber, and related blended fiber characteristics and applications, published from 1990 to 2012. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Alginate has been widely applied in agriculture and chemical industry, biological control, tissue engineering, drug delivery system, wound repair, and environmental purification. New hybrid fibers obtained through blending modification cannot only improve the shortcomings of alginate fiber applications, but also be endued with more performances, as biomaterials which have become a research hotspot nowadays and in the future. At present, development of biomedical materials is going towards environmental protection, high functionality, and intel ectualized directions. Seaweed fibers, chitosan fibers, gelatin fibers and their blend fibers, which are present with a rich storage in natural, low cost, excel ent biocompatibility and degradation, have great potential and have been expected to have further development in biomedicine and bionic medicine.% 背景：海藻酸纤维是一种多形式且多功能性物质，目前已被逐步应用于生物医学及临床。目的：全面评述海藻酸纤维的结构与功能，同时介绍海藻酸与壳聚糖、海藻酸与明胶共混纤维的特性及在医学上研究的应用情况。方法：由第一作者检索1990至2012年 PubMed 数据库及万方数据库有关海藻酸纤维制作过程、海藻酸纤维结构及性能、海藻酸纤维在生物医学的应用情况及其相关共混纤维的特性与应用等方面的文献。结果与结论：海藻酸盐已被广泛应用于农业化工、生物防治、组织工程、缓释药物系统、创伤修复、净化环境等方面。通过共混改性得到的各种新型混合纤维，不但改善了海藻酸纤维应用上的不足，同时也赋予其更多的性能，成为了当今和未来生物材料的研究热点。目前生物医学材料正向着环保、高功能、智能化等方向发展，自然界储存量丰富、成本价格低廉、具有良好生物相容性及降解性的海藻纤维、壳聚糖纤维和明胶纤维及以它们为基质通过共混和/或改性等方法制造出来的功能性纤维潜力巨大，在生物医学及仿生医学领域有待进一步开发。
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