Aim To study the changes of protein kinase B Akt/ glycogen synthase kinase-3β(GSK-3β) signal transduction pathway in hypertrophic myocardial tissue of rats induced by pressure overload. Methods Wistar rats,male,were divided into aortic banding group(AOB group)(n=19) and sham group(n=20) at random.After 4 weeks,the left vertricular hypertrophy models were built successfully,measured the hemodynamic datas and left ventricular weight index,then detected the protein expression of Akt,phospho-Akt,GSK3β and phospho-GSK3β in myocardiac tissue by Western Blot. Results Compared with controls,inter ventricular septum(1.60±0.10 mm vs 0.9±0.10 mm),left ventricle posterior wall(1.60±0.07 mm vs 1.00±0.07 mm) were significantly increased(p<0.01);left ventricular fractional shortening was also significantly increased(56.9%±3.4% vs 47.8%±2.1%,p<0.05);dp/dtmax was decreased significantly(3 508±310 mmHg/s vs 4 675±322 mmHg/s,p<0.05);the expression of phospho-Akt in hypertrophic myocardiac tissue was increased significantly(1.2±0.3 vs 0.9±0.3,p<0.05);the expression of phospho-GSK3β was decreased significantly(0.7±0.2 vs 0.9±0.2,p<0.05). Conclusions Akt/GSK3β signal transduction pathway took part in the pathophysiological process of myocardiac hypertrophy which caused by pressure overload.Particularly,the Akt expression had a positive change in the myocardiac hypertrophy,and GSK3β had a negative change,we hypothesized that GSK3β maybe has a inhibition function to myocardiac hypertrophy.