To investigate the effects of matrine combined with chemotherapeutic drugs on the proliferation and invasion of human acute myeloid leukemia HL-60 cells.Methods:Human acute myeloid leukemia HL-60 cells were cultured in vitro.Matrine monotherapy group was treated with 1.0 g/L matrine，arsenic trioxide monotherapy group with 3 mmol/L arsenic trioxide，combination group with 1.0 g/L matrine+3 mmol/L arsenic trioxide，blank group with the same amount of saline.MTT assay was used to detect the proliferation of HL-60 cells，ranswell chamber assay was used to detect the invasion ability of HL-60 cells，and Western blotting was used to detect the expression of MMPs in HL-60 cells.Results:The 24-hour PIR of matrine group，arsenic trioxide group and combination group were(18.54±2.54)%,(29.54±2.62)%,(41.45±3.72)% and 48-hour PIR were(27.46±2.55)%,(38.93±3.76)%,(45.64±3.54)%.The PIR of HL-60 in the 3 groups increased with the increase of culture time.PIR of 24 h and 48 h in THE combination group was higher than that of matrine and arsenic trioxide at the same time point(P<0.05).The number of invasive cells in the blank group，the matrine group，the arsenic trioxide group and the combination group were(127.64±23.93),(94.24±15.23),(81.23±12.21),(75.13±10.69)，and the relative invasion index were(100.00±0.00),(73.44±0.34),(62.47±0.15),(58.54±0.36)%，respectively.The relative expressions of MMP-2 were （0.91±0.05），（0.39±0.04），（0.23±0.04），（0.14±0.03），and the MMP-9 protein were （0.62±0.05），（0.31±0.05），（0.27±0.04），（0.16±0.02），respectively.Compared with the blank group，the number of invasive cells in matrine monotherapy group，arsenic trioxide monotherapy group and combination group decreased significantly，the relative invasion index and the relative expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 protein in cells decreased，and the combined group was lower than matrine monotherapy group and arsenic trioxide monotherapy group(P<0.05).Conclusion:Matrine combined with arsenic trioxide can effectively inhibit the proliferation and invasion of human acute myeloid leukemia HL-60 cells，and its mechanism may be related to the down-regulation of MMP-2 and MMP-9 protein expression.