Abstract: Objective To investigate the influence of TGF-β1 on the expression of thrombospondin 1 (TSP-1) in human tubular epithelial cells. Methods Human tubular epithelial cell (HKCs) line were cultured in vitro with DMEM/F12 (1:1). HKCs were divided into tow groups: ①Normal control groups (C groups)：HKCs were cultured in free serum medium (FSM); ②TGF-β1 groups (Tgroups) : HKCs werecultured in FSM contained TGF-β1. All cells were redivided into there subgroups C1, C2, C3 and T1, T2, T3 by culturing 24, 72 and 120 hours respectively. The expression of TSP-1 were detected with Immuno- histochemistry. The expression of TSP-1 mRNA were analyzed by RT-PCR. The corelation between the relative culture time and TSP-1 mRNA were analyzed. Results TSP-1 expression were negative in C groups and T1 group. However, the expression were positive in T2 group and strong positive in T3 group compared with C2 and C3 groups respectively, P＜0.01. Statistical analysis showed that there was a positive correlation between culture time and TSP-1 mRNA expression (R=0.758, P＜0.01). Conclusions TGF-β1 could time dependenly induce the expression of TSP-1 in HKCs with.

Key words: Human tubular epithelial cell, Transforming growthfactor β1