Abstract: PURPOSE: Bisphosphonates are commonly used to treat bone-derived malignant tumors currently. In recent years, with the widespread use of these drugs, reports on the difficulty of wound healing (DWH) increase remarkably. However, the mechanism is still unclear. The soft tissue injury was suspected to cause DWH in many recent reports. This experiment was designed to explore the influence of zoledronic acid on fibroblast, and investigate the possible mechanisms leading to DWH. METHODS: NIH 3T3 fibroblasts were routinely cultured in vitro. The influence of zoledronic acid on apoptosis, proliferation and migration of fibroblast were tested with flow cytometry, MTT and cell migration assay, respectively. The results of each experimental group were compared with the control group using SPSS 17.0 software package. RESULTS: At a concentration of 5~50 μmol/L, zoledronic acid could dose-dependently inhibit the activity of fibroblast proliferation and migration, and up-regulate apoptosis with significant difference (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Zoledronic acid can up-regulate cell apoptosis, inhibit proliferation and migration of fibroblast, suggesting that soft tissue impairment might contribute to the occurrence of DWH.

Key words: Zoledronic acid, Fibroblast, Apoptosis, Proliferation, Migration