ABSTRACT
The Present study was made to evaluate the antiproliferative effect of chitosan extracted from crab shells against human lungadenocarcinoma cell line (A549). Chitosan was extracted from crab shells which includes deproteinization, demineralization,deacetylation. MTT method to find out the toxicity and cell viability of chitosan in both normal and cancer cells (A549). The Propidiumiodide staining and DNA fragmentation is to analyze the apoptotic bodies in A549 cell line. Chitosan appeared creamy white in colourand the total carbohydrate content was estimated as 0.07 mg/ml. The antiproliferative effect of chitosan against A549 cells clearlyemphasizes, that there is a decrease in the cell viability. The 50 % inhibition (IC50) of the cell growth was found at 20 µg/ml.The cytolocalization of nuclear morphology and DNA fragmentation assay revealed the induction of apoptotic cell death in A549 at 24 hours.Chitosan exhibits the inhibitory effect by inducing loss of cell viability, morphology change and DNA fragmentation in A549 cells due tothe presence of free protonated amino groups on the polymer chain. Our preliminary studies support that chitosan could be an efficienttherapeutic agent for cancer