Objective:To explore the effect and significance of rapamycin on cardiomyocyte autophagy function in early heart failure rat. Methods:The rats were divided into control group（n=8）and treatment group（n=6）. The heart failure model was established by abdominal aortic constriction. Rats in the treatment group were intraperitoneally injected with rapamycin（3 000 U/kg） 3 times per week for 4 weeks;saline was injected intraperitoneally as control. At 4 weeks

8 weeks

12 weeks after operation

the patients were examined at different time points. All rats were sacrificed at the end of the 12 th week after 24 hours of fasting. Myocardial cell morphology

myocardial cell apoptosis and apoptosis index（AI）were observed. Protein expression of Cathepsin D and Beclin-1 was detected by Western blot. Results:Echocardiography showed ventricular hypertrophy at 4 weeks after modeling and heart failure at 8weeks. The AI was lower in treatment group than in control group[（25.55±2.56）% vs.（34.66±1.46）%

P<0.05]. The levels of Beclin-1 and Cathepsin were significantly higher in the control group（0.867±0.005 and 0.821±0.003）than in sham operated group

and the levels of Beclin-1 and Cathepsin were lower in treatment group（0.423±0.002 and 0.655±0.001）than in control group（P<0.01）.The cardiomyocyte autophagy rate in sham-operated group

treatment group and control group were（8.14±1.27）%

（26.73±2.48）%

（34.57±4.06）% （F=1.998

P=0.046）. Conclusion:Rapamycin can effectively inhibit cardiomyocyte autophagy and improve cardiac function in rats with heart failure.