To investigate the effects of porcine Ghrelin (pGhrelin), a newly discovered peptide on porcine preadipocyte Caspase-3 activity and gene expression, piglet subcutaneous preadipocytes treated with 0, 1, 10 and 100 nmol/L pGhrelin were cultured for 48 h, and preadipocyte morphology was observed under an inverted biological microscope, the effects of preadipocyte prolifaration was mesured by MTT, preadipocyte Caspase-3 activity was detected with spectrophotometric method, Caspase-3 gene expression level was determined using real-time fluorescent quantitative RT-PCR. 10 nmol/L pGhrelin significantly decreased preadipocyte Caspase-3 activity and mRNA expression level (P < 0.05), 100 nmol/L pGhrelin significantly promoted porcine preadipocyte proliferation compared to control group (P < 0.01). pGhrelin downregulated Caspase-3 activity and expression mRNA of porcine preadipocyte, induced preadipocyte proliferation and inhibited apoptosis. Caspase-3 dependent apoptosis regulation signalling was supposed to be involved in the apoptosis mechanism.