Basic Properties of Chitin and chitosan

摘要

Chitin, one of natural abundant polysaccharides on the earth, has been applied mainly for the biomedical field such as wound dressing due to biodegradability and low toxicity. A water soluble chitin derivative, carboxymethyl(CM)-chitin, was successfully applied o induce highly specified antibody production against attached hapten following to subcutaneous injection of the mixture of immunoadjuvant and hapten pendanted CM-chitin. The accumulation of CM-chitin has also been reproted in bone marrow for 4 to 5 days following to intravenous injection. CM-chitin has been investigated as chitin heparinoide with quite low hypertension, whereas sulfated chitosan induced fatal one.