title: Anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties of chitin and chitosan oligosaccharides.
abstract: Previous reports indicate that N-acetyl-d-glucosamine oligomers (chitin oligosaccharide; NACOS) and d-glucosamine oligomers (chitosan oligosaccharide; COS) have various biological activities, especially against cancer and inflammation. In this review, we have summarized the findings of previous investigations that have focused on anticancer or anti-inflammatory properties of NACOS and COS. Moreover, we have introduced recent evaluation of NACOS and COS as functional foods against cancer and inflammatory disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, Tottori University, 4-101 Koyama-minami, Tottori 680-8553, Japan. kazu-azuma@muses.tottori-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Kazuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Azuma
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, Tottori University, 4-101 Koyama-minami, Tottori 680-8553, Japan. tosaki@muses.tottori-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Osaki
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, Tottori University, 4-101 Koyama-minami, Tottori 680-8553, Japan. saburominami@ncn-t.net.
authors.forename: Saburo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Minami
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, Tottori University, 4-101 Koyama-minami, Tottori 680-8553, Japan. yokamoto@muses.tottori-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Yoshiharu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okamoto