BACKGROUND:: As a vaccine mucosal delivery system, nanoparticle system has many advantages, including antigen protection, simplified immune procedure and facilitated transport of the antigen. OBJECTIVE:: To introduce the characteristics of mucosal delivery system, overview the application and prospect of the vaccine mucosal delivery technologies based on nanoparticles. METHODS:: Using the database of CNKI, Sciencedirect, and Pubmed to search the related articles about vaccine nanoparticles mucosal delivery system published between January 1997 and June 2010 with key words "nanoparticles, vaccine, mucosal immune delivery, PLGA, chitosan" in Chinese and English. Related articles were selected, which were published in authoritative journals in the same field. There were 168 articles after the initial survey, and 48 articles related vaccine nanoparticles mucosal delivery system were included. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:: Biomaterials used in vaccine nanoparticles mucosal delivery system include hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity nanoparticles, which have good biological features, such as biodegradability, low toxicity, and antigen protection. Moreover, they can be modified and used as carriers for different drugs to enhance immunity and allow long-term expression and release of drugs or DNA in vivo. They significantly enlarge application range of vaccine nanoparticles mucosal delivery system.Huang TT, Hou ZY, Zhang XY, Chen G, Hao LW, Zhao K.Characterization of vaccine nanoparticles mucosal delivery system. Zhongguo Zuzhi Gongcheng Yanjiu yu Linchuang Kangfu. 2011;15(29):5459-5462. [http://www.crter.cn http://en.zglckf.com]