To develop a bone substitute with shape-generating properties, we investigated eff ects of dextrin, a low viscosity material, on MC3T3-E1 mouse osteoblast-like cells in vitro. At concentrations of 0.1 and 1.0 mM, dextrin promoted proliferative activity of MC3T3-E1 cells, whereas at concentration of 10 mM and higher, it negatively affected cell survival. In an alkaline phosphate (ALP) assay, MC3T3-E1 cells from experimental groups that were exposed to all tested concentrations of dextrin showed signifi cantly higher ALP activity values than cells in control group after day 9 in culture. In addition, blue-violet color in histochemical ALP staining experiments was detected in all groups on day 5 in culture; however, the most intensive staining was observed in MC3T3-E1 cells treated with 0.1 mM dextrin on day 11. Given to previously proven good biocompatibility of dextrin in vitro, our present results suggest that dextrin can be combined with bone fi lling material as a binder for clinical applications.