TABLE 3.
HMW chitosan activities against L. major amastigotes in three different macrophage cultures
| Host cells | Mean value ± SDa |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HMW chitosan (μg/ml) |
Amphotericin B (μM) |
|||
| EC50 | EC90 | EC50 | EC90 | |
| PEMs | 10.31 ± 1.22 | 89.07 ± 20.46 | 0.02 ± 0.004 | 0.27 ± 0.07 |
| BMMs | 14.60 ± 1.79 | 145.7 ± 36.2 | 0.04 ± 0.005 | 0.43 ± 0.1 |
| THP-1 | 24.28 ± 2.87 | 200.1 ± 48.8 | 0.08 ± 0.006 | 1.15 ± 0.37 |
a
More than 80% of macrophages were infected at 24 h for all cell lines. Cultures were grown at pH 6.5 and analyzed after 72 h. Experiment was conducted in quadruplicate cultures. Experiment was reproduced a further two times with similar results (data not shown). There were statistically significant differences in EC50s between the three types of cells (P < 0.05 by the extra-sum-of-squares F test); chitosan and amphotericin B were significantly more active in PEMs and BMMs than in THP-1 cells. RPMI and DMEM alone at pH 6.5 and chitosan solvent did not show any activity against amastigotes.