Chitosan is a depolymerized and partially deacetylated derivative of chitin. We investigated the cytotoxicity of chitosan in cancer cell lines, such as P388, L1210, HCT-15, SK-HepG-1 and mouse splenocytes as a normal cell by MTT assay. To clarify whether chitosan enhances cytotoxicity of anticancer drugs, we also examined the cytotoxicity of combined treament with chitosan and anticancer drugs, such as cisplatin, mitomycin C, and 5-fluorouracil in cancer cell lines in vitro. Chitosan (37.5 ㎍/㎖, 75 ㎍/㎖, 112.5 ㎍/㎖, and 150 ㎍/㎖) showed concentration-dependent cytotoxicity in the cancer cell lines. In addition, chitosan showed relatively lower cytotoxicity in normal cells than in the cancer cell lines. Particularly, this trend was significant at high doses of chitosan, i.e. 112.5 ㎍/㎖ and 150 ㎍/㎖. Thus, these results suggest that chitosan may selectively induce the growth inhibition in cancer cell lines, compared to normal cells. Furthermore, the co-treatment of chitosan and anticancer drugs exhibited an apparant synergistic cytotoxicity in murine lymphoma cell lines, i.e. P388 and L1210 at 37.5 ㎍/㎖ of chitosan rather than at 75 ㎍/㎖ of chitosan, but such phenomenon could not be observed in solid tumor cell lines, i.e. HCT-15 and SK-HepG-1. However, chitosan did’nt reduced the cytotoxicity against normal mouse splenocytes induced by anticancer drugs. Therefore, it is concluded that the combination of chitosan and anticancer drugs might be useful for the cancer chemotherapy.
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