Abstract: Objective To investigate whether gastrodin plays a protective role in rat myocardial cell oxidative stress by mitochondrial pathway. Methods H2O2 (650 μmol/L) was used to induce oxidative stress injury of H9c2 cells, and the pretreatment concentration of gastrodin was 50.0, 10.0, 1.0 and 0.1 μmol/L respectively. Laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) was used to detect mitochondrial membrane potential. MTT method was used to test the effect of gastrodin on cell survival rate. Western blot was used to observe the influences of gastrodin on the activity of glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK-3β) and protein kinase B (Akt). Results Pretreatment of gastrodin with different concentrations could prevent the reduction of fluorescence intensity of tetramethylrhodamine ethyl ester caused by H2O2, and the 10.0 μmol/L gastrodin pretreatment group had the most obvious effect compared with the model group [(0.79 ± 0.08) vs (0.30 ± 0.25)]. Pretreatment with gastrodin(10.0 μmol/L) improved the survival rate of H9c2 cells (P < 0.05) and increased protein expressions of p-GSK-3β (Ser9) and p-Akt (Ser473); whereas PI3K inhibitor, Wortmannin penicillin (Wort), could block this effect. Conclusions Gastrodin can alleviate oxidative stress damage of H9c2 myocardial cells caused by H2O2. It may inactivate GSK-3β through PI3K/Akt pathway, thereby play a cardiac-protective role through inhibition of mPTP opening.