Objective To study correlation of zinc finger protein which regulates apoptosis and cell cycle arrest(ZAC) with somatostatin and its receptor expression in gastric cancer tissues, and explore its relationship with clinicopathological factors of gastric cancer. Methods Immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR techniques were used to detect expression of ZAC, somatostatin and its receptor in 30 cases of gastric cancer, adjacent cancer and normal gastric mucosa tissues. Results The positive rate of ZAC in gastric cancer, adjacent cancer and normal gastric mucosa tissues was 33.3%(10/30)、73.3%(22/30)and 66.7%(20/30) respectively; that of SST was 36.7％(11/30)、53.3％(16/30) and 73.3％(22/30) respectively. The positive rates of both ZAC and SST in gastric cancer tissues were significantly lower than those in normal gastric mucosa tissues. Five SSTR subtypes were expressed in gastric cancer, adjacent cancer and normal gastric mucosa tissues. Compared with normal gastric mucosa tissues, positive rate of SSTR3 decreased significantly, and those of SSTR2 and SSTR5 increased significantly in gastric cancer tissues. In gastric cancer tissues, the expression tendency of ZAC was consistent with those of SST and SSTR3 Co-expression of ZAC and SST was obviously related to differentiation type and infiltration. However, no relation was found between co-expression of ZAC and SST to lymph node metastasis. Co-expression of ZAC and SSTR3 was significantly related to differentiation type of gastric cancer. Conclusion ZAC might be a downstream gene of somatostat in in inhibition of development of gastric cancer. Somatostatin effects on ZAC expression via binding with SSTR3 to inhi