Abstract: The objective was to study the mechanism of short range modulation of carcinoma cells in serum free culture medium. The cell measurement in situ and immunohistochemical staining were employed to observe the dynamic changes of cell proliferative rate and the expression of basic fibroblasts growth factor (bFGF) of human hepatocellular cells that were cultured in serum-free and mitogen-free medium. Results: With the changes of cell proliferative rate, the dynamic changes of expression of bFGF at different phases were found. When the proliferative rate was increased, the expressions of bFGF increased strongly, and vice versa. These suggest that the autocrine and paracrine growth factors play an important role in short range modulation of cell proliferation.

Key words: human hepatocellular cells, serum free culture, cell proliferative rate, bFGF