objective:to explore the therapeutic mechanism of tongxinluo capsule treating atherosclerosis in coronary heart disease by measuring the changes of coronary plaques and myocardial histopathology of apolipoprotein e gene knockout mice[apoe (-/-)]intervented by tongxinluo capsule. Methods:forty apolipoprotein e gene knockout mice[apoe (-/-)]were taken as the experimental group,to establish the models of coronary atherosclerosis,then randomly divided to 5 groups(model group ,simvastatin group and tongxinluo group),the laters were intervented for 8 weeks by simvastatin and tongxinluo capsule with high dose,middle dose and low dose respectively,while other 8 isogeneic mice as the normal control group. The effect and potential mechanism of tongxinluo capsule on atherosclerosis in[apoe (-/-)]mice were researched by observating the changes of some indexes in each group,such as coronary plaques and myocardial histopathology,and so on. Results:the lesions of coronary in mice of model group were mostly located at small brancha in cardiac muscle,cardiac muscle cell,myocardial interstitium,and the average score is 6.63±1.48. compared with model group,simvastatin group and different dosage of tongxinluo capsule groups had less coronary and cardiac muscle lessions,the average score of the simvastatin group was 2.62±2.25(p < 0.01),the low dose of tongxinluo capsule was 4.5±1.71(p < 0.05),the middle dose group was 3.12±1.81(p < 0.01),and the high dose group was 2.38±2.34(p < 0.01). There were no statistically significant differences between simvastatin group and high－and middle－dose tongxinluo group(p > 0.05). Conclusion:tongxinluo capsule had significant inhibition effect in coronary atherosclerosis formation in the simvastatin group compared with high－and middle－dose tongxinluo group in adose－dependent model. While the high－dose and middle－dose tongxinluo had the similar effect with simvastatin group.