Abstract: Objective To study the potential of bFGF to promote human bone marrow derived MSCs to differentiate into cardiomyogenic cells, and its effect on proliferation of MSCs. Methods MSCs isolated from adult human bone marrow were cultured in four different systems. Group A: medium with 5-aza. Group B: medium with bFGF. Group C: medium with 5-aza＋bFGF. Control group: medium alone. The morphological changes of MSCs were observed. Then immunocytochemistry staining against α-actin，cTnT，and Connixin43 was performed. The expression of Nkx2.5, GATA-4 and cTnT was detected by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. And the proliferation of MSCs in different groups was measured by MTT. Results The MSCs in both group A and C partially differentiated into myogenic cells and expressed proteins of α-actin，cTnT，and connixin43. In group A and group C, the mRNA levels of Nkx2.5、GATA-4 and cTnT were higher than that of control group. In group B, the mRNA levels of Nkx2.5 and GATA-4 were higher than that of control group. Compared with the control group, the proliferation of cells was faster in group B but slower in group A and C. And the proliferation was faster in group C than in group A. Conclusions bFGF can promote the proliferation of MSCs significantly. When combining with 5-aza, bFGF can promote MSCs to differentiate into cardiomyogenic cells more effectively.