Abstract: AIM: To investigate the effects of Ginkgo biloba extract on cell proliferation in cultured human Tenon's capsule fibroblasts and its potential mechanism.METHODS: Human Tenon's capsule fibroblasts were cultured in vitro, the subcultured cells were identified by morphology observation and Vimentin staning. Untreated cells were acted as normal control group,TGF-β₁ as the stimulating factor, the cells were treated with GBE with concentrations of 0,25,50,100 and 200 mg/L. Cell proliferation was observed by MTT assay, flow cytometry tested cell cycle, the expression of α-smooth muscle-actin (α-SMA) was detected by immunocytochemistry, the mRNA level of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) was measured by RT-PCR.RESULTS: TGF-β₁ markedly increased the cell proliferation, GBE effectively inhibited the proliferation in a concentration-time dependent way. The S phase of cells in TGF-β₁ group were gradually increased, the expression of α-SMA and CTGF were also markedly increased induced by TGF-β₁, which was partly attenuated by GBE.CONCLUSION: Ginkgo biloba extract can inhibit HTCFs proliferation and down regulation the TGF-β₁ induced α-SMA and CTGF mRNA overexpression.

Key words: Ginkgo biloba extract, Human Tenon's capsule fibroblasts, Transforming growth factor-β₁, α-smooth muscle-actin, Connective tissue growth factor