Abstract: Abstract: Objective To establish an in vitro culture model of genioglossus myoblast of rat,and to observe the biological character of myoblasts.Methods Genioglossus muscle was from SD neonatal rat no older than 3 days.Twostep enzymatic digestion using collagenase II and trypsine was applied to obtain genioglossus myoblast.The preplate technique was used to purify myoblast.Cytometry was used to draw the cell growth curve.αsarcomeric actin immunocytochemistry was adopted to identify the myogenic origin of the myoblast.Results Genioglossus myoblast was successfully obtained,and more than 90% of the cells were αsarcomeric actin positive.The cells were active in proliferation and differentiation.The doubling time of cell numbers was about 45 days.The monocyte myoblasts were fused to myotube when cell density was high.Conclusions Sufficient and purified genioglossus myoblast could be obtained by enzymatic digestion and preplate technique.The cells can be proved as myoblast by morphological and immunocytochemistry detection.

Key words: genioglossus, myoblast, enzymatic digestion, preplate technique, myotube