Objective To study the expression of bone morphogenetic protein7(BMP_7) in the hypoxic and ischemia damage striatum tissues, and investigate the neuroprotective effect of endogenous BMP-7 in the injuried nerve tissues of rats. Methods Rat models of focal cerebral ischemia were made. Immunohistochemistry method was used to detect the expression of BMP-7 in the rat striatum 24 hours after ischemia/reperfusion and caudalputamen cells were cultured under hypoxia/reoxygenation. The absorbance of the positive products of the stained section was measured by computer image processing software, and statistics analysis was done. Results The expression of BMP-7 in the caudalputamen was higher and more extensive in the ischemic side than that in the nonischemic side 24 hours after ischemia/reperfusion, and there was a statistically significant difference between the average absorbance in the ischemic side and that in the nonischemic side. (P<0.01), while BMP-7 expression was not detected in the bilateral caudalputamen in the normal and sham control rat groups. In the primary cultural cells, the weak expression of BMP-7 was detected in the plasm of caudalputamen cells 24 hours after hypoxia/reoxygenation, while no BMP-7 positive expression was found in the normal control caudalputamen. Conclusion This experiment explained that hypoxicischemic can cause endogenous BMP-7 expression. The increased expression of BMP-7 ind