Objective To observe the effect of resveratrol on arterial remodeling in spontaneous hypertensive rats.Methods Spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHRs, n=20) and Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKYs, n =10) were randomly assigned to three groups: control group, model group and resveratrol group.Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and pulse wave velocity (PWV) of the three groups was observed.Morphological observations were obtained by hematoxylin and eosin or victoria blue and picrosirius red.The content of nitric oxide (NO) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) were determined to assess the endothelial function.Oxidative stress was assessed by malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) , and activities of antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT).Results Compared with control group, SBP, PWV, wall thickness, wall-lumen ratio,vascular cross-sectional area (VCSA), luminal cross-sectional area (LCSA) and collagen-elastic ratio were increased, and the levels of NO, SOD, CAT in rat aortic tissues were decreased, while ET-1,MDA, H2O2 levels in rat aortic tissues were enhanced in model group at the end of 22 weeks.After the treatment of resveratrol, SBP had no significantly difference between model and resveratrol groups, while PWV, aortic wall thickness, wall-lumen ratio, VCSA, LCSA and collagen-elastic ratio were decreased in resveratrol group as compared with model group [(6681.1 ± 2154.9) cm/s vs.(4283.1±946.1) cm/s, (234.7±51.8) μm vs.(123.4±21.5)μm, (10.3±2.3) ％ vs.(5.8±1.4) ％, (6.4±0.4) mm2 vs.(4.8±0.6) mm2, (4.1±0.1) mm2 vs.(3.2±0.4) mm2, (1.1±0.3) vs.(0.4±0.2), P＜0.05 or 0.01].Compared with model group, the expressions of NO, SOD, CAT in rat aortic tissues were increased and levels of ET-1, MDA, H2 O2 in rat aortic tissues were decreased in resveratrol group after treatment of resveratrol (P＜0.01 or P＜0.05).Conclusions Resveratrol has an antioxidant effect, and it could attenuate arterial remodeling by improving oxidative stress.