Objective: To elucidate the effects of exogenous basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on biological characteristics of rat osteoblasts cultured in vitro.
Methods: The osteoblasts isolated from a Sprague-Dawley rat and cultured in vitro were treated with different concentrations of bFGF (5-50 ng/ml) respectively. At 24 hours after treatment, the proliferating cell nuclear antigen was measured with immunocytochemistry, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity was determined and the expression of transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-beta(1)) was detected to observe the effects of bFGF on growth and differentiation of osteoblasts.
Results: bFGF (5-50 ng/ml) could obviously promote the growth of osteoblasts. The intracellular expression of TGF-beta(1) mRNA increased significantly, but the intracellular ALP content decreased.
Conclusions: bFGF can obviously stimulate the proliferation of osteoblasts and promote the synthesis of TGF-beta(1), but cannot promote the differentiation of osteoblasts.