To study the effect of hypoxia on the proliferation of hBMSCs and human placental decidua basalis-MSCs (hPDB-MSCs), and to provide the theoretical basis for discovering the new seed cells source for tissue engineering.Density gradient centrifugation method was adopted to isolate and culture hBMSCs and hPDB-MSCs, flow cytometry (FCM) was applied to detect cell surface marker. After establishing the experimental model of CoCl2 chemical hypoxia, MTT method was applied to evaluate the proliferation of hBMSCs and hPDB-MSCs at different time points (6, 12, 24, 48, 72, 96 hours) with various CoCl2 concentration (0, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200 micromol/L).FCM analysis revealed that hPDB-MSCs and hBMSCs expressed CD9, CD29, CD44, CD105, CD106 and human leucocyte antigen ABC (HLA-ABC), but both were absent for CD34, CD40L and HLA-DR. Compared with hBMSCs, hPDB-MSCs expressed stage-specific embryonic antigen 1 (SSEA-1), SSEA-3, SSEA-4, TRA-1-60 and TRA-1-81 better. The proliferations of hPDB-MSCs and hBMSCs were inhibited within the first 12 hours under hypoxia condition, but promoted after 12 hours of hypoxia. Compared with the control group, the hBMSCs were remarkably proliferated 24 hours after hypoxia with CoCl2 concentration of 150 micromol/L (P < 0.05), while hPDB-MSCs were significantly proliferated 12 hours after hypoxia with CoCl2 concentration of 75 micromol/L (P < 0.05).Compared with hBMSCs, hPDB-MSCs express more specific surface antigens of embryonic stem cells and are more sensitive to the proliferation effects of chemical hypoxia, indicating it may be a new seed cells source for tissue engineering.