ASGR1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: In this study, to improve water solubility of chitosan, water-soluble chitosan with lower molecular weight, chitosan oligosaccharide (CSO), was used and coupled with lactobionic acid (LA) bearing a galactose group as the specific ligand to the asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGP-R) of hepatocellular carcinoma cells.