Chitosan, a natural polysaccharide that has excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability, can be used as nerve conduit material. The purpose of this work was to study the ability of chitosan and some chitosan-derived materials to facilitate nerve cell attachment, differentiation and growth. The biomaterials studied were chitosan, poly-L-lysine-blended chitosan (CP), collagen-blended chitosan (CC) and albumin-blended chitosan (CA), with collagen control material. Culture of PC12 cells and fetal mouse cerebral cortex (FMCC) cells on these biomaterials was used to evaluate their nerve cell affinity. The composite materials, including CP, CC and CA, had significantly improved nerve cell affinity compared to chitosan, as established by increasing attachment, differentiation and growth of PC12 cells. FMCC cells could also grow better on composite materials than on chitosan. CP exhibited the best nerve cell affinity among these three types of composite material. CP is an even better material in promoting neurite outgrowth than collagen, a substrate that is widely used in tissue engineering, suggesting that CP is a promising candidate material for nerve regeneration.