Abstract: Protein-based hydrogels have got more and more attention for their abundant resources，biodegradability and good biocompatibility. The crosslinking mechanisms of protein-based hydrogels are firstly introduced in this review，and then the characterization methods for the structure measurement of protein-based hydrogels are presented，such as spectroscopic measurement，thermal analysis and microscope. The applications of protein-based hydrogels in absorbent hydrogels，intelligent hydrogels and tissue engineering are reviewed，and finally the existing problems and the trends of research are discussed.