OBJECTIVE: Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (MIRI) is the main cause of death from ischemic heart diseases. Stanniocalcin 1 (STC1) has a potential therapeutic effect on MIRI. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of STC1 on inflammation and apoptosis of myocardium in MIRI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used rats to make ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) models and determined the efficiency of modeling by 2, 3,5-triphenyl tetrazolium chloride staining, echocardiography, and lactate dehydrogenase detection. We injected subcutaneously recombinant human STC1 (2.5 pg/kg, 5 pg/kg) into rats daily one week before modeling to detect the effect of STC1 pretreatment on inflammation and apoptosis of rat myocardial cells. In addition, we cultured rat myocardial cell lines (H9c2 cells) to investigate the effect of STC1 on myocardial cells. RESULTS: The cardiac function and structure of I/R rats were obviously destroyed. After treating rats with STC1, we found that the cardiac function and structure of the rats were significantly improved. In addition, STC1 reduced the expression of inflammatory factors and apoptosis levels in rat myocardium. Stimulation of STC1 also improved the viability of H9c2 cells in vitro. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, STC1 can alleviate MIRI by inhibiting inflammation and apoptosis. It indicated that STC1 may have a potential therapeutic effect on MIRI.