We analysed the relationships between p53-induced apoptosis and the acidic fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF1) survival pathway. We found that p53 activation in rat embryonic fibroblasts induced the downregulation of FGF1 expression. These data suggest that the fgf1 gene is a repressed target of p53. Unlike extracellular FGF1, which has no effect on p53-dependent pathways, intracellular FGF1 inhibits both p53-dependent apoptosis and cell growth arrest via an intracrine pathway. FGF1 increases MDM2 expression at both mRNA and protein levels. This increase is associated with an acceleration of p53 degradation, which may partly account for the ability of endogenous FGF1 to counteract p53 pathways. In the presence of FGF1, p53 was unable to transactivate bax, but no modification of p21 gene transactivation was observed. As Bax is an essential component of the p53-dependent apoptosis pathway, this suggests that intracellular FGF1 inhibits p53 pathways not only by decreasing the stability of p53, but also by modifying some of its transactivation properties. In conclusion, we showed that p53 and FGF1 pathways may interact in the cell to determine cell fate. Deregulation of one of these pathways modifies the balance between cell proliferation and cell death and may lead to tumor progression.