BMP4 (Bone morphogenetic protein 4) is a member of the bone morphogenetic protein family, which is involved in bone and cartilage development, specifically tooth and limb development and fracture repair. To test the effect of BMP4 on cell apoptosis, HepG2 cells were seeded into triplicate wells of 96-well plates at a density of 4,000 cells/well and allowed to attach overnight, then the medium was replaced with various concentrations of recombinant rat BMP4 diluted with 5% serum standard DMEM. After incubated for 72h, cells were observed by inverted microscope and cell proliferation was measured by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8). Briefly, 10 µl of CCK-8 solution was added to each well of the plate, then the absorbance at 450 nm was measured using a microplate reader after incubating the plate for 1-4 hours at 37 ℃. Apoptosis of HepG2 cells after incubation with BMP4 for 72h observed by inverted microscope was shown in Figure 1. Cell viability was assessed by CCK-8 (Cell Counting Kit-8 ) assay after incubation with recombinant rat BMP4 for 72h. The result was shown in Figure 2. It was obvious that BMP4 significantly decreased cell viability of HepG2 cells. The ED50 of recombinant rat BMP4 is 18.5 ug/ml.

Figure 2. Inhibition of HepG2 cells proliferation after stimulated with recombinant rat BMP4