Abstract: Aim To study the effect s of total extract of astragalus(TEA) on activating the primary cultured hepatic stellate cells (HSC) and synthesizing collagen. Methods Livers of adult rats were perfused by pronase E and collagenase in situ, HSC and Kupf fer cell (KC) were isolated by centrifugation with 18 % Nycodenz. The subcultured HSC w ere induced by Kupffer cell conditioned-medium(KCCM) and were incubated with 5 ~ 80 mg·L^{-1 TEA for 6 days. The proliferation of the cells was measured by 3H-TdR and the production of collagen by 3H-Proline. Results TEA (10 ~ 40 mg·L-1) could suppress the proliferation of hepatic stellate cells and TEA (40 ~ 80 mg·L-1) could suppress the production of collagen. Conlusion The suppression of hepatic stellate cell proliferation and the collagen’ s production by the TEA may be one of the mechanisms for depressing the hepatic fibrosis by the TEA.}

Key words: total extract of astragalus (TEA), hepatic stellate cells, kupf fer cell, proliferation, collagen