By means of cell counting and MTT assay, we observed that cultured bovine aortic smooth muscle cells (SMC) incubated with oxidized low density lipoprotein (OLDL, 0. 2 g protein·L-1 )for 12 hours and xanthine (X, 100 μmol·L-1) plus xanthine oxidase(XO, 100 U. L-1 ) for 2 hours showed multiplication of bovine aortic smooth muscle cells and that the effects of OLDL and X-XO were significantly inhibited by probucol. Synthesis inhibitor of nitric oxide (NO) NG-nitro-L-arginine(NG-L-Arg, 100 μmol· L-1) could not abolish the effect of probucol. Our data indicates that probucol could contend with multiplication of SMC induced by OLDL or X-XO.