〔Abstract〕 Objective Previous studies have shown that quercetin can promote the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs), but the regulatory mechanism is not completely clear. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) differentiation antagonizing non-protein coding RNA (DNACR) can inhibit the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs. This study further investigated whether quercetin could promote BMSCs proliferation and osteogenic differentiation by regulating DANCR expression. Methods BMSCs were cultured in complete medium supplemented with 10 μmol·L-1 quercetin. cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) was used to detect the proliferation of BMSCs. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity was determined by ALP analysis kit. The expression of DANCR, bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2), runt-associated transcription factor 2 (RUNX2) and osteocalcin were detected by fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Results Quercetin treatment enhanced BMSCs proliferation, ALP activity, BMP-2, RUNX2 and osteocalcin expression. Compared with the osteogenic differentiation medium induction group (positive control group), the quercetin treatment group could maintain the proliferation of BMSCs better, but the effect of inducing BMSCs osteogenic differentiation was significantly reduced. Further studies showed that DANCR expression was significantly decreased during BMSCs osteogenic differentiation induced by quercetin. Overexpression of DANCR could reverse the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs induced by quercetin. ConclusionDermatin promotes the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs by inhibiting DANCR expression