Abstract: Abstract: Objective To observe the effects of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on osteogenic differentiation abili⁃ ty and cell proliferation of human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs), and to explore the role of bFGF on the process of osteogenic differencitiaion in vitro. Methods HGFs were cultured in vitro until the 3rd passage when they were divided into four groups: normal medium as group 1, normal medium with 10 μg/L bFGF as group 2, osteogenic medium as group 3 and osteo⁃ genic medium with 10 μg/L bFGF as group 4. MTT assay was used to evaluate the proliferation of HGFs. Alkaline phospha⁃ tase (ALP) staining and Alizarin red staining were applied to investigate osteogenic potential of HGFs under different culture conditions. Results bFGF at concentration of 10 μg/L could increase HGFs proliferation in both normal and osteogenic medium (P＜0.01). HGFs could be induced towards osteogenic differentiation and form mineralized nodule in osteogenic me⁃ dium. However, 10 μg/L bFGF had no effects on ALP activity and mineralized nodule formation of HGFs during osteogenic differentiation. Conclusion bFGF could promote the proliferation of HGFs but show no effects on osteogenic differentiation of HGFs at concentration of 10 μg/L.

Key words: fibroblast growth factor 2, fibroblasts, gingiva, osteogenesis, cell differentiation, cell proliferation