Objective To observe the effect of pravastatin on the expression of heat shock protein B7 (HSPB7) in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) rats. Methods A total of 80 AMI rats were randomly divided into AMI group and pravas-tatin (P) group. Forty SD rats were used as sham operation (SH) group. Rats were then subdivided into 1 h, 3 h, 6 h and 12 h subgroups (10 for each group). Rats were not ligated after thoracotomy in SH group. The 1eft anterior descending coronary ar-tery was ligated in rats of AMI group. The 1eft anterior descending coronary artery was ligated in P group and given intragas-tric administration of 0.5 mg/(kg · d) pravastatin. The other groups were given the same amount of normal saline via gavage. The left ventricle infarcted myocardial tissues were taken at each time intervals. The corresponding myocardial tissues were harvested in sham-operated rats. The HSPB7 mRNA and protein expressions were measured by RT-PCR and immunohisto-chemistry respectively.Results The expression levels of HSPB7 mRNA and protein were significantly higher in the AMI group and P group than those of SH group(P<0.01). The expression levels of HSPB7 mRNA and protein were significantly increased 1 h after AMI and reached the peak value at 3 h after AMI. The expression levels of HSPB7 mRNA and protein were still higher in 6-h group and 12-h group than those of SH group. The expression levels of HSPB7 were higher in differ-ent time points of P group than those of AMI group. Conclusion HSPB7 could express in the early stage of acute myocardi-al infarction in rats. Pravastatin could promote the upregulation of HSPB7 in myocardial infarcted border zone after AMI, which may play a protective role in early myocardial infarction.