Objective
Recently, cultured myoblast transplantation has been extensively studied as a gene complementation approach in such genetic diseases as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). In the present work we investigated the stimulating effects of the growth factors, such as basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and interleukin-1 (IL-1), on growth rate and differentiation of myoblast.

Method
Human myoblasts were cultured from biopsy and treated in vitro with various concentration of bFGF, LIF and IL-1. In serum-free defined medium the following observation were made to evaluate differentiation.

Results
bFGF and LIF except IL-1 were found to have stimulating effect of myoblast proliferation comparing to control group (p＜0.05), yet there were no statistically significant differences among each growth factors (p＞0.05). The most significant growth stimulation of myoblasts in culture was achieved by adding 3.0 ng/ml of bFGF, producing a stimulation effect up to 2.01-fold. All myoblasts treated with growth factors differentiated into myotube.

Conclusion
Our findings indicate that bFGF and LIF stimulate the proliferation of myoblast, which may result in an effective way in producing large numbers of myoblasts for clinical myoblast transplantation in DMD patients. (J Korean Acad Rehab Med 2002; 26: 426-431)