Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of BMP4 on glioblastoma cell invasion and its mechanism. Methods In human malignant glioma cells U251, myc, myc-BMP4, siCtrl, siBMP4 was transfected into cells, and changes on the invasive ability of cells with high and low BMP4 expression were detected by Scratch wound healing assay, In mechanism study, RT-PCR and western blot assay were used to detect the expression of E-cadherin and Snail1 in four groups. Results Wound healing results showed that high BMP4 expression in U251 cells decreased cell invasion（P＜0.01）, and low BMP4 expression increased cell invasion; RT-EPCR and Western blot assay results showed that high BMP4 expression significantly increase E-cadherin expression（P＜0.01）, low BMP4 expression significantly decrease E-cadherin expression（P＜0.01）, when BMP4 expression was high, Snail1 protein expression was decreased（P＜0.01）. Conclusion: BMP4 can regulate GBM cell invasion through negative regulation of Snail1 signaling pathway.

Key words: invasion, BMP4, snail1