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Objective The aim of this study was to explore the effect of aescine on the growth in cultured rat cerebral cortical neurons and the relationship with BDNF and TrkB. Methods The cerebral cortex cells from newborn SD rats were primarily cultured in 24 or 96 well plate. Cells were randomly divided into normal, control and aescine groups. Aescine group was cultured with 20 mg/mL aescine (diluted with physiological saline) , control group was cultured with the same volume of normal saline, and normal group do not have any treatment. The sub groups and images were captured at 24 h and 48 h. The expression of BDNF and TrkB mRNA were detected by using RT-PCR, and the neuronal growth vigor was detected by MTT. Results There was no difference in normal and control groups at each time point in cells numbers, body area, neurite length and viability (P> 0.05) , but all indicators have increased in the normal and control groups with the time prolonged. The indicators in aescine group were significantly higher than those in normal and control groups (P < 0.05) . RT-PCR showed that there was no significant difference in expression of BDNF and TrkB mRNA in normal and control groups at each time point (P > 0.05), but the expression in aescine group was significantly higher than that in normal and control groups at each time point (P < 0.05). Conclusion Aescine can promote neuron growth and may be relationship with the expression of BDNF and its receptor TrkB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]