OBJECTIVE To explore the effects of leonurine on growth arrest-specific protein-6 （GAS6）/Axl signaling pathway， and clarify its mechanism of alleviating myocardial injury in rats with coronary heart disease. METHODS The rat model of coronary heart disease was constructed； successfully modeled rats were randomly separated into model group， leonurine low- dose and high-dose groups （intragastric administration of leonurine 25， 100 mg/kg+intraperitoneal injection of normal saline 75 mg/kg）， and leonurine high-dose+GAS6/Axl signaling pathway inhibitor group （intragastric administration of leonurine 100 mg/kg+ intraperitoneal injection of R428 75 mg/kg）， with 12 rats in each group. Additional 12 normal rats were selected as control group. Each administration group was given relevant medicine； control group and model group were given a constant volume of normal saline intragastrically and intraperitoneally， once a day， for 48 consecutive days. After administration， the heart function of rats， and serum levels of inflammatory factors and myocardial injury markers were detected； the pathological morphology of myocardial tissue was observed； the myocardial cell apoptosis rate， the expressions of apoptosis and GAS6/Axl signaling pathway-related proteins were determined. RESULTS Compared with control group， model group showed disorders in the arrangement of myocardial cells and myocardial fibers， hypertrophy of myocardial cells， and nuclear condensation； left ventricular ejection fraction， left ventricular fractional shortening， ratio of early-diastolic and late-diastolic motion velocity of the mitral ring， the protein expression of GAS6， B-cell lymphoma 2/B-cell lymphoma 2 associated X protein and phosphorylated Axl/Axl ratios were decreased significantly （P＜0.05）. The levels of tumor necrosis factor-α， interleukin-1β， interleukin-6， creatine kinase isoenzyme， troponin Ⅰ and myoglobin， the cell apoptosis rate， and cleaved caspase-3/caspase-3 ratio were increased significantly （P＜0.05）. Leonurine could obviously improve the above pathological conditions and detection indicators （P＜0.05）， and the effect of leonurine high-dose group was more significant than that of leonurine low-dose group （P＜0.05）； R428 treatment could reverse the ameliorating effect of high-dose of leonurine on myocardial injury in rats with coronary heart disease （P＜0.05）. CONCLUSIONS Leonurine can alleviate myocardial injury in rats with coronary heart disease， and its mechanism of action is related to the activation of the GAS6/Axl signaling pathway.