Abstract: AIM:To explore the effects and mechanism of adenosine triphosphate and adenosine receptor agonist pharmacological postconditioning on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in rabbits. METHODS: Sixty New Zealand white male rabbits were randomly divided into five groups (n=12 each): control group, I/R group, IPO group, ATP group and CGS-21680 group. The model of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion was established and the concentrations of IL-1β and TNF-α were detected by radioimmunoassay at the end of 3 h reperfusion. TUNEL method was employed to detect apoptotic changes and real-time quantitative RT-PCR was used to detect the expression of IL-1β and TNF-α mRNA in myocardial tissue. RESULTS: Compared with those in I/R group, the concentrations of IL-1β and TNF-α markedly decreased in IPO group, ATP group and CGS-21680 group. However, the differences of three groups were not significant. Compared with those in I/R group, the apoptosis indexes significantly decreased in IPO group, ATP group and CGS-21680 group. The expressions of IL-1β and TNF-α mRNA decreased obviously in IPO group, ATP group and CGS-21680 group. A positive correlation was found between apoptosis and the expressions of IL-1β and TNF-α mRNA (r=0.91, r=0.93; P<0.05). CONCLUSION: ATP-postconditioning attenuates myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury, possibly by inhibiting the effect of inflammation and decreasing myocardial apoptosis.