Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are crucial factors of osteogenesis. We investigated the expressions of BMP subtypes in human salivary adenocarcinoma cell line (HSG-S8), tongue squamous cell (HSC-4) and gingival squamous cell (Ca9-22) carcinoma cell lines, gastric poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma cell (MNK45) and signet ring cell (KATOIII) carcinoma cell lines, rectal adenocarcinoma (RCM-1, RCM-2, and RCM-3), and thyroid (8505C) and bladder (T24) carcinoma cell lines by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). RT-PCR disclosed that BMP-1 was expressed in all cell lines examined, and BMP-2 was amplified in almost all cells except MKN45. Two squamous cell carcinomas, HSC-4 and Ca9-22, and KATOIII expressed only BMP-1 and BMP-2. MKN45 did not express BMP-2, but expressed BMP-7 and weakly BMP-4 and BMP-5. In addition to the expression BMP-7, and HSG-S8 expressed BMP-6. These findings indicated that the neoplastic epithelial cells possessed a rather great potency to express BMP mRNAs. On the other hand, among these carcinoma cells, HSG-S8 solely induced bone in nude mouse tumors, and HSC-4 and KATOIII contained many calcified masses in tumors while the rest did not induce either.