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-β1) 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-β, mRNA increased significantly, but the intracellular ALP content decreased.Conclusions: bFGF can obviously stimulate the proliferation of osteoblasts and promote the synthesis of TGF-β1, but cannot promote the differentiation of osteoblasts. 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 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-β1) 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-β, mRNA increased significantly, but the intracellular ALP content decreased. Conclusions: bFGF can obviously stimulate the proliferation of osteoblasts and promote the synthesis of TGF-β1, but can not promote the differentiation of osteoblasts.