Objective    To observe the influence of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH_4-10) in the changes of podocyte proliferation, apoptosis and expression of nephrin and podocin on adriamycin(ADR) -induced podocyte injury and investigate the protective effect of ACTH_4-10.    Methods    All podocytes were randomly divided into following groups: normal control, ADR-induced group and ACTH_4-10 intervention group (low, middle and high concentration). Normal control group was not treated, ADR-induced group was induced to set the model of podocyte injury by ADR (1 μmol/L) for 24 hours and ACTH_4-10 intervention groups were intervened by 1 μg/L, 10 μg/L and 100 μg/L ACTH_4-10 for 1 hours respectively, prior to setting the model of podocyte injury. Cell counting kit (CCK-8) was used to detect the multiplication of podocytes and TUNEL apoptosis detection kit was used to detect podocyte apoptosis. Real-time PCR and Western blotting were used to examine the expression of nephrin and podocin.    Results    Compared with control group, podocyte proliferation and expression of nephrin and podocin was decreased significantly in ADR-induced group (P＜0.05), meanwhile podocyte apoptosis was increased obviously (38.14% vs 5.12%). Compared with ADR-induced group, podocyte proliferation and expression of nephrin and podocin was increased generally with concentration of ACTH_4-10. Although podocyte apoptosis rates (20.45%, 17.39%, 11.02%) were increased in ACTH_4-10 intervention group (low, middle and high concentration) while comparing with normal control group, podocyte apoptosis decreased obviously while comparing with ADR-induced group.    Conclusions    ACTH_4-10 can stabilize the expression of nephrin and podocin on slid diaphragm, and has the protective effect on podocyte injury induced by ADR, while the effect depends on the concentration of ACTH_4-10.