Myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) still have high morbidity and mortality worldwide. Platelet activating factor (PAF) is a potent phospholipid regulator of inflammation. PAF acts on a single receptor (PAFR), which is expressed on cellular and nuclear membranes of various cell types. The study is aimed to explore if PAFR could modulate myocardial I/R injury in mice. PAFR expressions began to up-regulate at 1 h, and reached peak at 24 h. PAFR deletion markedly attenuated myocardial I/R injury, evidenced by the reduced infarct size and the improved cardiac function. Furthermore, PAFR-knockout inhibited inflammatory response, as demonstrated by down-regulated pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokine, as well as the inactivation of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappa B). Additionally, PAFR-absence ameliorated oxidative stress induced by myocardial I/R, associated with the up-regulation of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and nuclear respiratory factor 2 (Nrf-2) activity. Finally, PAFR-deficiency impeded apoptosis, which was proved by the decreasing in terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated dNTP nick end labeling (TUNEL)-positive myocytes, and Caspase-3 cleavage. And the activation of Janus kinase 1-signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (JAK1/STAT1) pathway was also suppressed by PAFR-knockout. The findings above were confirmed in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-incubated cardiomyocytes with or without PAFR expressions in vitro. In summary, we supposed that inhibiting PAFR reduced inflammation, oxidative stress and apoptosis, and thus might be a promising therapeutic strategy to alleviate myocardial I/R injury. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Inc.