Previous evidences suggested that atorvastatin not only reduced blood lipids but also reduced myocardial hypertrophy and remodeling. And it was reported that C/EBP beta (CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (3) played a pivotal role both in the physiologic and pathological cardiac hypertrophy. However, it has not been reported before whether this signaling pathway of C/EBP beta participates in protective effect of atorvastatin for hypertrophy cardiomyocytes. In present study, We found that overexpression of C/EBP beta significantly abrogated the effect of atorvastatin on increasing Bcl-2/Bax and PGC-1 alpha while the early and late apoptosis rate increased and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) was reduced. In conclusion, we further identified the protective effect of atorvastatin on hypertrophic cardiomyocytes induced by Angiotensin II by rescuing the MMP and inhibiting apoptosis, which might be at least partly attributed to down -regulation of C/EBP beta. And C/EBP beta might be a new target to rescue mitochondrion function and apoptosis in pathological cardiac hypertrophy. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Inc.