Objective To investigated the effect of procyanidin (PC) on the expression of cysteine proteinase -3 (Caspase -3) in type 2 diabetes mellitus SD rats with focal cerebral ischemia. Methods Following the random principle, 40 healthy Sprague - Dawley (SD) rats were numbered sequentially and randomly divided to normal rats with focal cerebral ischemia group,type 2 diabetes mellitus SD rats with focal cerebral ischemia group,PC low/ middle/ high -dose groups,with 8 rats in each group. The type 2 diabetes mellitus - MCAO model was set up. The doses of PC for low,middle and high - dose groups were 50 mg/ kg,100 mg/ kg,200 mg/ kg. Immunohistochemistry method was used to measure the activity of Caspase - 3. Results Compared with that in the normal rats with focal cerebral ischemia group[(11. 42 ±2. 52)],the expression of Caspase -3 increased in the type 2 diabetes with ischemia group[(15. 00 ± 2. 38)](t = 2. 17,P < 0. 01). Compared with that in the type 2 diabetes with ischemia group,the expression of Caspase - 3 decreased in the PC groups[(9. 38 ± 2. 00),(7. 71 ± 1. 55),(6. 96 ± 1. 57)](t = 2. 86,3. 13,3. 36,all P < 0. 01),whereby the middle and high - dose groups showed more significant decrease (t = 1. 92,2. 03,all P <0. 01) and with no statistically significant difference between the two groups(t = 1. 13,P > 0. 05). Conclusion PC can decrease the expression of Caspase - 3 protein in type 2 diabetes mellitus SD rats with focal cerebral ischemia, finally may inhibit the apoptosis.