Objective:To investigate the effect of urantide,a urotensin Ⅱ receptor antagonist,on hepatic p120-catenin(p120ctn)expression in acute liver failure(ALF) mice. Methods:A total of 24 male Balb/c mice were randomly divided into the healthy control group,pretreatment control group,ALF model group and pretreatment ALF group(6/group). ALF model mice were induced by lipopolysaccharide(LPS) 50 μg/kg combined with D-galactosamine(D-GalN) 800 mg/kg intraperitoneal injection of ALF,and control mice were injected with an equal volume of 0.9% sodium chloride solution;the pretreated ALF group was given a 0.6 mg/kg urantide tail vein injection 30 min before modeling;the pretreatment control group was replaced with an equal volume of 0.9% sodium chloride solution. And then,liver specimens were collected after 12 h. The levels of hepatic p120ctn mRNA and protein were detected by real-time PCR and Western blot analysis. Results:There was no significant difference in the relative expression levels of p120ctn mRNA and protein between the healthy control group and the pretreatment control group,while the relative expression level of p120ctn mRNA and protein in the healthy control group and the pretreatment ALF group was significantly higher than that in the ALF model group(P < 0.05). Conclusion:The inhibition of p120ctn expression may be associated with the activation of UⅡ/UT signaling system in LPS/D-GalN-induced ALF mice.