Bovine type I collagen (BIC), which is widely used as a fibrous extracellular matrix component in cell culture models, inhibits the progression of melanoma cell cycle via p27 up-regulation. BIC also induces nitric oxide synthase in macrophages through JunB/AP-1 and NF-kappaB activation. Given the previous observations, this study investigates the effect of BIC on the cell cycle progression and regulatory function of Raw264.7 macrophage cells and the responsible signaling pathways. Cell cycle analysis revealed that BIC completely suppressed proliferation of Raw264.7 cells with inhibition of the percentage of cells in the S phase and the reciprocal decrease in the G0/G1 phase. DNA synthesis was also inhibited by BIC, as evidenced by a decrease in the cellular incorporation of [3H]thymidine. The G1/S arrest induced by BIC was reversed by chemical inhibition of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-kinase) or overexpression of the p85 subunit of PI3-kinase. Either PD98059 or stable transfection with mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase-1 [MKK1(-)] or c-Jun N-terminal kinase 1 [JNK1(-)] also released the cell cycle arrest. Immunoblot analyses revealed that the levels of cyclins D1, A and B1 were partly or completely down-regulated by BIC, but cyclin E, p21 and p27 were minimally changed. Chemical inhibition and dominant negative mutant overexpression experiments revealed that either PI3-kinase inhibition or JNK1(-) transfection prevented the decreases in cyclin D1, A and B1 by BIC, indicating that the PI3-kinase and JNK1 pathways were associated with disruption of the cyclins. The pathway involving MKK1-extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/2 (ERK1/2) was responsible for the suppression of cyclin A and B1, but not that of cyclin D1. The present study showed that BIC inhibited proliferation of Raw264.7 cells and that the pathways involving PI3-kinase and mitogen-activated protein kinases regulate the cell cycle arrest.