Metal oxide [cerium oxide (NanoCeO(2))]-chitosan (CH) nanocomposite film has been fabricated onto indium-tin-oxide (ITO) coated glass plate to immobilize cholesterol oxidase (ChOx) via physiosorption for cholesterol detection. Electrochemical studies reveal that the presence of NanoCeO(2) in CH-CeO(2) nanocomposite results in increased electroactive surface area for ChOx loading resulting in enhanced electron transport between ChOx and electrode. The ChOx/CH-NanoCeO(2)/ITO bioelectrode exhibits interesting characteristics such as detection range of 10-400 mg/dL, detection limit of 5 mg/dL, response time of 10 s, low K(m) value of 3.5 mg/dL and value of regression coefficient of 0.994. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.