Abstract: Objective To study the effects of Rh₂(a ginsenoside extracted from ginseng) on PC-3M (androgen independent cell lines) apopotosis and new gene GRIM-19 expression. Methods Rh₂ agents were divided into three groups:high dose group (Rh₂40 mg·L^-1),middle dose group (Rh₂30 mg·L^-1)and low dose group(Rh₂15 mg·L^-1),which incubated with PC-3M for 24 h， respectively， in the following experiments. Morphological assessment of apoptosis was performed by acridine orange (AO) stained fluorescence microscope to detect the apoptosis of PC-3M cells after treated with Rh₂ agents; RT-PCR was used to measure the level of GRIM-19 mRNA in PC-3M cells treated with Rh₂ agents;GRIM-19 protein expression of PC-3M cells treated with Rh₂ agent was measured by Western blotting. Results After various doses of Rh₂ interacted with PC-3M cells for 24 h, AO assay showed that cells changed from green color into orange one and typical exocytosis phenomena were observed in Rh₂ 15 mg·L^-1 group. The consequences of RT-PCR and Western blotting demonstrated that GRIM-19 expression was intensified both in gene and protein levels with the increasing Rh₂ doses. The expressions of GRIM-19 in Rh₂ 15 mg·L^-1 group and 30 mg·L^-1 group were higher than that in control group（P<0.05）, and in Rh₂ 40 mg·L^-1 group the expression of GRIM-19 had a remarkable difference compared with control group （P<0.01）. Conclusion Rh₂ can lead to apoptosis of PC-3M cells that correlated with GRIM-19 gene and protein expression upregulation, the expression level increases with the Rh₂ in a dose-dependent manner.