Objective To investigate the effect and mechanism of shikonin on apoptosis of IL-1β human intervertebral disc nucleus pulposus cells.〖WTHZ〗Methods Human nucleus pulposus cells were cultured in vitro. the effect of shikonin on nucleus pulposus cytotoxicity and the effect of shikonin on IL-1βinduced nucleus pulposus cell activity were measured by CCK8 assay. The experiment was divided into control group, IL-1β treatment group and IL-1β+shikonin treatment group. The hochest 33258 staining and flow cytometry Annexin V/PI double staining were used to detect the apoptosis level of nucleus pulposus cells. The expression levels of cleaved caspase 3 and Bax and antiapoptotic protein Bcl2 in nucleus pulposus cells were detected by Western blot. The expression levels of PI3K and AKT protein in nucleus pulposus cells were detected by Western blot.Results The concentration of shikonin in CCK8 was not toxic to nucleus pulposus cells at 5, 10, 15 μM. Further detection showed that when shikonin concentration was 10 μM, the activity of nucleus pulposus cells induced by IL-1β was the most obvious, so the shikonin concentration of 10 μM was selected for subsequent experiments. Both hochest 33258 staining and flow cytometry Annexin V/PI double staining assay showed that shikonin can significantly reduce IL-1βinduced apoptosis of nucleus pulposus cells, and Western blot analysis found that shikonin can significantly reduce the expression of apoptotic protein of cleaved caspase 3 and Bax, increased expression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 in the IL-1βinduced nucleus pulposus cells.Conclusion Shikonin can significantly increase the expression of pPI3K and pAKT protein in nucleus pulposus cells induced by IL-1β.