Aim To study effect of insulin and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) on the growth of cultured rat artery smooth muscle cells (SMCs). Methods Antisense and sense ODNs of bFGF were added into SMC medium, bFGF gene expression was detected by Northern bloting, cell hyperplasia was evaluated by thymidine incorporation and cell counting. Results Insulin induced proliferation of cultured vascular SMCs in concentration-dependent way and bFGF mRNA expression. Insulin increased from 0.001 mg/L to 1.0 mg/L, the rate of SMC hyperplasia from 10% to 53%. Antisense ODN (5 μmol/L) of bFGF significantly inhibited proliferation of SMCs, thymidine incorporation by 41.1% (P<0.01), and cell number by 30.2% (P<0.01 vs control) respectively. Conclusion Insulin may enhance SMC proliferation by inducing bFGF gene expression, antisense ONDs of bFGF inhibited partly DNA synthesis and proliferation of cultured vascular SMC induced by insulin. 还原