Aim To investigate inhibiting effect of hepatocyte growth factor(HGF) on endothelial apoptosis induced by advanced glycosylation end products(AGE) and its possible mechanism. Methods Human umbilical vein endothelial cells(hUVEC) were cultured in vitro and intervened by different concentration of AGE and HGF.The cell inhibiting rates of each group in different time course(12,24,48 and 72 h)were measured by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolizm(MMT) assay,the early stage apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry with Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining,morphology of cell apoptosis was observed by acridine orange fluorescence staining,and the expression of apoptosis-associated genes Bax and Bcl2 were detected by western blotting.The activity of caspase-3 was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results Morphological observation indicated that high AGE induced characteristic apoptotic changes in hUVEC.Within a certain concentration range,hUVEC apoptosis inducing rates by AGE were both in concentration-and time-dependent manner.HGF significantly inhibited the apoptosis of hUVEC induced by AGE(p<0.05).High AGE significantly increased Bax protein,but not Bcl-2,whereas HGF significantly promoted the expression of Bcl-2(p<0.01) and decreased the activity of caspase-3(p<0.05) without affecting Bax level. Conclusions AGE can induce the apoptosis of endothelial cells in vitro.HGF effectively attenuate high AGE-induced apoptosis through upregulating Bcl-2 gene expression and inhibiting caspase-3 activation.