Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of EGF on cell cycle and apoptosis in epithelia of dorsal lingual mucosa from mice and rabbits in vitro. Methods Dispase II and trypsin were combined to digest the lingual dorsum epidermis, and the epithelia were obtained from healthy mice and rabbits. After the lingual dorsal epithelia were incubated in 10% RPMI-1640 withl, 5，10 )ag/L EGF (control group 0 jug/L) by 16 h，32 h, 48 h，flow cytometric analysis was used to analyze the cell cycle distribution and apoptosis. Results Compared with the control group, cell cycle distribution and apoptosis showed distinct after the period of time with EGF. EGF could inhibit the apoptosis of the epithelia from mice at 32 h and 48 h, as well as inhibit the apoptosis of the epithelia from rabbits at 16 h. In addition, the effect of anti-apoptosis showed dose-dependent in the epithelia from mice at 48 h. Conclusion EGF could inhibit the apoptosis of the lingual dorsum epithelial cells from mice and rabbit by altering the cell cycle distribution.

Key words: Epithelia of dorsal lingual mucosa, Cell cycle and apoptosis, EGF