Cytotoxicity of Low, Medium and High Molecular Weight Chitosan’s on Balb/c 3T3 Mouse Fibroblast Cells at a 75-85% De-acetylation Degree

Chitosan is nowadays in the limelight as carrier system for drugs, proteins, hormones, enzymes and genes. Therefore, it is important to also investigate the cytotoxicity of different facets of it against cells. In this study the cytotoxicity towards three different molecular weights (a low molecular weight 50-90kDa, a medium molecular weight 190-310kDa and a high molecular weight 310-375kDa) on mouse Balb/c 3T3 fibroblast cells were investigated. The degree of de-acetylation was between 75- 85%. The cell survival rate was determined according to the standard MTT assay. The presence of all three chitosan's showed a positive effect on the survival rate (above the control value) which increased with increasing molecular weight (from 108% through 118% to 120%). It was concluded that not only improved the presence of chitosan the cell survival rate to a higher level than that of the control but the higher the molecular weight of chitosan the better the survival rate while a molecular weight of about 375kDa seems to near the highest possible positive effect.