Modulation of cellular proliferation and c-myc oncogene expression after treatment of human choriocarcinoma cell line(BeWo) with trsnsorming growth factor-¥a1(TGF-¥a1) have been investigated by MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiaxol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] assay and Northern blotting analysis, respectively. TGF-¥a1 inhibited BeWo cell growth in a dose dependent manner at concentrations of 0.00110 ng/mL. When BeWo cells were exposed to 10 ng/ml of TGF-¥a1,c-myc was repressed after 4hr and completely aboiished at 24hr of stimulation. These results show that TGF-¥a1 may play an antiproliferative effect on BeWo cell growth via c-myc gene product. In vitro analysis of cellular and molecular alterations in BeWo cells in this study may aid in elucidating the mechanism of action of TGF-¥a1 on human choriocarcinoma tissues in vivo.