Objective：To construct luciferase reporter plasmids of full-length and truncated promotors of rat macrophage inflammatory protein-1α（MIP-1α）gene and detect their activity in HEK-293T cells in response to interferon regulatory factor-8（IRF-8）overexpression，screening the possible binding elements for IRF-8. Methods：Rat MIP-1α promoter was amplified by PCR and cloned into the luciferase reporter plasmid（pGL3-basic）. The recombinant plasmid（pGL3-MIP-1α-FL）and rat IRF-8 overexpression plasmid（pIRES2-IRF-8）were co-transfected into HEK-293T cells and then the luciferase activity was detected to determine the role of IRF-8 in MIP-1α gene transcription. Meanwhile，the potential IRF-8 binding elements within MIP-1α promoter were predicted by using bioinformatics software. Based on the predicted results，three luciferase reporter plasmids of truncated MIP-1α gene promotor（pGL3-MIP-1α-1~3）were constructed. The promoter luciferase reporter plasmids of pGL3-MIP-1α-FL or pGL3-MIP-1α-1~3 and the plasmid of pIRES2-IRF-8 were co-transfected into HEK-293T cells. Then，the luciferase activity was detected to screen the IRF-8 binding elements. Results：It was verified that pGL3-MIP-1α-FL（-1 400~+94 nt）plasmid was constructed correctly by PCR analysis and nucleotide sequencing. The plasmids of pGL3-MIP-1α-FL and pIRES2-IRF-8 were co-transfected into HEK-293T cells，and then the luciferase activity of MIP-1α gene promotor was markedly increased in response to IRF-8 overexpression. The potential IRF-8 binding elements（-1 157~ -1 144 nt，-740~ -734 nt，-683~ -670 nt，-365~-359 nt，and -249 ~ -236 nt）within MIP-1α promoter were predicted by using bioinformatics software. Based on the predicted results，we constructed three luciferase reporter plasmids of truncated MIP-1α gene promotor，namely pGL3-MIP-1α-1（-453 ~ +94 nt），pGL3-MIP-1α-2（-352 ~ +94 nt）and pGL3-MIP-1α-3（-3 ~ +94 nt）. The plasmids of pGL3-MIP-1α-FL or pGL3-MIP-1α-1~3 and pIRES2-IRF-8 were co-transfected into HEK-293T cells，and the result displayed that the activity of pGL3-MIP-1α-3 was much lower than that in pGL3-MIP-1α-FL，pGL3-MIP-1α-1 and pGL3-MIP-1α-2，indicating that the region of rat MIP-1α promoter（-352 ~ -3 nt）might contain an IRF-8 binding element（-249 ~ -236 nt）. Conclusion：The rat full-length and truncated rat MIP-1α promotor luciferase reporter plasmids were constructed successfully，and the possible IRF-8 binding element was found，which could be beneficial to further studies.