Bone morphogenetic protein-7(BMP-7), a member of the transforming growth factor superfamily, stimulates osteoblast differentiation and bone formation. There are lots of evidences supporting a direct participation of periodontal ligament(PDL) cells on periodontal tissue regeneration. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of recombinant human(rh) BMP-7 on primary rat PDL cells in vitro, with special focus on the ability of bone formation. The PDL cells were cultured with rhBMP-7 at the concentration of 0, 10, 25, 50, 100 and 200ng/ml for MTT assay. We evaluated the alkaline phosphatase activity at 3 and 5 days of incubation and the ability to produce mineralized nodules of rat PDL cells at 14 days of cell culture in concentration of 0, 10, 25, 50 and 100ng/ml. The cell activity was not reduced in cells treated with BMP-7 at $10{sim}100ng/ml$, whereas the cell activity was reduced in the concentration of 200ng/ml than the control at day 1 and 3(p<0.01). At 3 and 5 day, alkaline phosphatase activity was significantly increased in cells treated with BMP-7 at 50ng/ml and 100ng/ml(p<0.05). The area of mineralized bone nodule was greater in cells treated with BMP-7 at 50 and 100 ng/ml than the control(p<0.01). These results suggest that rhBMP-7 stimulate rat PDL cells to differentiate toward osteoblast phenotype and secretion of the extracellular matrix of rat PDL cells.