Aim To investigate the protective and reparative effect of empagliflozin on oxidized-low density lipo-protein(ox-LDL)-induced injury in human umbilical vein endothelial cells(HUVEC)and its mechanism of action.Methods Primary HUVEC were cultured in vitro.ox-LDL was used to induce HUVEC injury model,and the cell sur-vival rate was measured by CCK-8 assay.EDU method was used to detect cell proliferation.Western blot was used to detect the protein levels of Ki-67,Bcl-2,cleaved Caspase-3,Bax,endothelial nitric oxide synthase(eNOS),intercellular adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1),vascular cell adhesion molecule 1(VCAM-1)and epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR)in HUVEC.RT-qPCR was used to detect the mRNA expression levels of interleukin-6(IL-6)and tumor necro-sis factor-α(TNF-α)in HUVEC.Using Swiss targets,GeneCards databases,gene ontology(GO)and Kyoto encyclope-dia of genes and genomes(KEGG),protein-protein interaction(PPI)network analysis,and ClickDocking(https://mcule.com/apps/1-click-docking/)to predict the target of empagliflozin.Results CCK-8 results showed that 0.025 μmol/L empagliflozin significantly alleviated ox-LDL-induced HUVEC injury(P＜0.01).EDU results showed that ox-LDL treatment for 24 h significantly inhibited the proliferation of HUVEC(P＜0.01),while empagliflozin treatment sig-nificantly alleviated the inhibition of cell proliferation(P＜0.01).The results of Western blot showed ox-LDL treatment significantly decreased the protein expression levels of Ki-67,Bcl-2,and eNOS,and increased the protein expression levels ofcleaved Caspase-3,Bax,ICAM-1,and VCAM-1 in HUVEC(all P＜0.05).However,empagliflozin treatment reversed these changes(all P＜0.05).RT-qPCR results showed that ox-LDL treatment increased the mRNA expression levels of IL-6 and TNF-α in HUVEC(P＜0.01),while empagliflozin treatment decreased their expression levels(P＜0.05).However,after adding EGFR agonist NSC 228155,the protective effect of empagliflozin against ox-LDL-mediated HUVEC injury was significantly reversed(P＜0.05).Conclusion Empagliflozin can significantly reduce ox-LDL-in-duced HUVEC injury,which may be related to EGFR signaling pathway.