Tehran University of Medical Sciences Acta Medica Iranica 0044-6025 54 8 2016 09 17 485 493 EN Fatemeh Nabavizadeh Departement of Physiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Hafseh Fanaei Departement of Physiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Alireza Imani Departement of Physiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Jalal Vahedian Department of Surgery, Firuzgar Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Fahimeh Asadi Amoli Departement of Physiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Jamal Ghorbi Department of Bio-Medical Engineering and Medical Physics, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Hamid Sohanaki Departement of Physiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Seyed Mehdi Mohammadi Departement of Physiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Ravieh Golchoobian Departement of Physiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 2015 11 15 2016 03 04 Capecitabine, an effective anticancer drug in colorectal cancer chemotherapy, may create adverse side effects on healthy tissues. In the present study, we first induced colon adenocarcinoma with azoxymethane, a carcinogen agent, and then investigated the potentiality of polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer to improve capecitabine therapeutic index and decrease its adverse side effects on healthy tissues like liver and bone marrow. Other variables such as nanoparticle concentrations have also been investigated. Drug loading concentration (DLC) and encapsulation efficiency (EE) were calculated for capecitabine/dendrimer complex. Experimental results showed an increase in DLC percentage resulted from elevated capecitabine/dendrimer ratio. Capecitabine/dendrimer complex could reduce tumor size and adverse side effects in comparison with free capecitabine form. https://acta.tums.ac.ir/index.php/acta/article/view/5146 https://acta.tums.ac.ir/index.php/acta/article/download/5146/4821