AIM: To study changes of expression of muscle LIM protein(MLP) mRNA and protein during the progression of left ventricular hypertrophy induced by coarctation of abdominal aorta in rats and to explore if there is disruption of cytoskeleton protein during hypertrophic growth in left ventricle. METHODS: Using a model of hypertrophy induced by coarctation of abdominal aorta(CAA) in male Wistar rats, hemodynamics, ventricular hypertrophic index, expression of MLP mRNA and protein were investigated in the experimental animals at 1, 4, 8, 16 weeks after operation and sham operation. RESULTS: Left ventricular shows significantly hypertrophy 4 weeks after operation ( P0.05 ). CONCLUSIONS: MLP changed at transcription level and there was no disruption of cytoskeleton during hypertrophic growth of left ventricle without sever heart failure. As the actin-base cytoskeleton protein, MLP plays a critical role in the maintenance of cardiac myocyte cytoskeleton and cardiac systolic function.