In this study, the ability of aminoethylation of chitooligosaccharide (COS) to inhibit the proliferation of AGS human gastric adenocarcinoma cells was evaluated. Aminoderivatized COSs, aminoethyl-chitooligosaccharide (AE-COS), dimethyl aminoethyl-chitooligosaccharide (DMAE-COS) and diethyl aminoethyl-chitooligosaccharide (DEAE-COS), were synthesized and confirmed by their IR spectra results in comparison to previous study. Aminoderivatized chitooligosaccharides-induced cell death was characterized by cell viability assay, changes in nuclear morphology and changes in cell morphology. According to our results, all aminoderivatized COSs significantly induced cell death in AGS gastric cancer cells. Moreover, protein and gene expression levels of important regulators involved in apoptosis pathway such as Bcl-2, Bax, p53 and p21 were examined using RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. Aminoderivatized COSs showed dose- and time-dependent inhibition of AGS cancer cell proliferation. AE-COS and DEAE-COS showed the higher apoptotic activity than DMAE-COS. The present results suggest all three kinds of water-soluble aminoderivatized COSs have a promising potential as valuable as cancer chemopreventive agents. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.