Objective To explore the effect of liraglutide on pressure-overload chronic heart failure in rats and related mechanisms. Methods Totally 30 SD rats were randomly divided into sham operation group, heart failure group and liraglutide group.The animals were anaesthetized and a Millar pressure volume conductance catheter SPR-838) was inserted through right carotid artery into LV to measure pressure-volume (P-V) loop.Body and organ weight were measured. After the end of intervention, the rats were anesthetized, and abdominal aortic blood taken from the upper serum after centrifugation. Kit method was used to measure superoxide dismutase (SOD), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), malondialdehyde (MDA).Results Compared with those of the sham operation group, there was a increase in absolute heart weight and (P<0.05). During the P-V loop analyses, We found that left ventricular (LV) end-systolic volume, end-diastolic volume, end-systolic pressure, end-diastolic pressure and maximum pressure were all remarkablely lower in liraglutide group than HF group in rats (P<0.05). Peak rate of pressure rise (dP/dt max), peak rate of pressure decline (-dP/dt min), ejection fraction and Maximum Power were increased in liraglutide group comparable by HF group (P<0.05). SOD activity was significantly increased and BNP concentration was significantly decreased in liraglutide group compared to HF group (P<0.05). Conclusions These results show that liraglutide protects pressure-overload rat heart from failure possibly through reducing oxidation.