Table 8.

Influence of deacetylation degree and molecular weight of chitosan on binding and metabolism of fats (Aranaz et al., 2009).

Physico-chemical property	Effect in vitro	Effect in vivo
↑ DD	↑ Electrostatic force between chitosan and fatty and bile acid	↓ Plasma cholesterol
		↓ LDL
		↑ HDL
↑ Mw	↑ Adsorption to lipid droplets ↓ adsorption to droplet surface of lipase	↓ Body weight gain
		↓ Adsorption and blood distribution
		↓ Liver total lipid and cholesterol

DD: deacetylation degree; Mw: molecular weight; LDL: low density lipoprotein; HDL: high density lipoprotein.