Effects of chitin and its derivatives on human cancer cells lines.

The present study is focused on the effect of chitin derivatives against human cancer cell lines RD and Hep2. As an outcome from this research, chitin was cytotoxic at IC50 = 400 µg/ml and 200 µg/ml against Hep2 cells and RD cells lines, respectively. Irradiated chitin had an IC50 value of 450 µg/ml for Hep2 and an IC50 of 200 µg/ml for RD. The lowest IC50 is attributed to chitosan, 300 µg/ml in Hep2 and 190 µg/ml in RD.