Objective To investigate the effect of epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (ErbB2) expression on invasion ofglioma cells and its possible mechanism.Methods Glioma TJ905 cells were cultured in vitro; and ErbB2 shRNA and overexpression vectors were constructed and transfected into Glioma T J905 cells to down-regulate and up-regulate the ErbB2 expression levels; empty vector plasmid was also transfected into the TJ905 cells as control group.Invasive ability changes of T J905 cells were measured by Transwell assay,and the expression levels of matrix metalloprotease (MMP)-2 and MMP-9 were identified by Western blotting.Results As compared with the ErbB2,MMP-2 and MMP-9 protein expression levels in the control group (62.34±5.72,62.34±5.72 and 69.76±6.25),those in the ErbB2 shRNA group were significantly decreased (34.82±4.91,58.73±4.48 and 52.32±5.23),while those in the ErbB2 overexpression group were significantly increased (69.76±6.25,87.34±7.96 and 94.39±6.12),with significant differences (P＜0.05).The mean cells crossing Matrigel in the ErbB2 shRNA group (28.5 cells/field) were obviously decreased,and those in the ErbB2 overexpression group were increased (82 cells/field) as compared with those in the control group (70 cells/field),with significant differences (P＜0.05).Conclusion ErbB2 expression can affect the invasiveness ofglioma cells,which might be related to the expression changes of MMP-2 and MMP-9.