Objective To investigate the effects of acoustic cavitation on the expression of proteins-aquaporin 4（AQP 4） and sodium potassium ATP enzyme（Na+-K+ATPase） in normal rabbit hepatocytes.Methods Forty-one healthy New Zealand white rabbits were randomly divided into the control group（n=5） and three different irradiation time groups:T1 group（irradiation time was 1 min

n=12）

T5 group（irradiation time was 5 min

n=12） and T10 group（irradiation time was 10 min

n=12）.Animals in T1 group

T5 group and T10 group were treated with high peak negative pressure（P=2.0 MPa） ultrasound irradiation combined with microbubble.Liver tissue specimens were obtained after ultrasound irradiation.Liver tissue specimens were taken by laparotomy in the control group.Distribution of AQP 4 and Na

+

-K

+

ATPase in each group was observed by immunohistochemical method

and expression of both protein was detected by Western blot.Results AQP 4 and Na

+

-K

+

ATPase positive cells of treatment groups were more than those of control group.AQP 4 protein expression of T1 group

T5 group and T10 group were significantly higher than that of control group（all P

<

0.05）.Comparison between groups showed that the expression of AQP 4 of T5 group was significantly higher than that of T1 group and T10 group（both P

<

0.05）

while the difference between T1 group and T10 group was not statistically significant.The expression of Na

+

-K

+

ATPase of T5 group and T10 group were significantly higher than that of control group and T1 group（all P

<

0.05）

while the difference between T1 group and control group was not statistically significant.Expression of Na

+

-K

+

ATPase in T5 group was significantly higher than that of T10 group（P

<

0.05）.Conclusion Microbubble enhanced cavitation could increase expression of AQP 4 and Na

+

-K

+

ATPase in normal rabbit liver while induce liver edema

and ultrasonic irradiation time is closely related to protein expression.