Objective:To observe the effect of berberine on adhesion of podocytes incubated with high glucose and to explore the action and molecular mechanism of the compound in improving podocyte injury induced by high glucose. MethodsDifferentiation culture and induced maturation of immortalized mouse podocyte cell line was performed in vitro by temperature-selective method. The cells were divided into normal control group (5 mmol/L glucose), model group (30 mmol/L glucose), hypertonic control group (30 mmol/L mannitol) and treatment group (30 mmol/L glucose + 1.25 μmol/L berberine). Cells were collected after treatment for 24 h, 48 h and 72 h. Cell viability was detected by MTT assay, cell adhesion was determined by centrifugation and the mRNA expression of adhesion molecules α3 and β1 was detected by Q-PCR.  Results:Compared with the normal control group and the hypertonic control group, viability and adhesion of podocytes and mRNA expression of α3 and β1 were significantly reduced in a time-dependent manner at 3 time points (P<0.01), and were reduced further over time (P<0.05) in the model group. Compared with the model group, viability and adhesion of podocytes and mRNA expression of α3 and β1 were significantly increased in the treatment group (P<0.01).  Conclusion:High glucose environment reduces viability and adhesion of podocytes, and changes the mRNA expression of adhesion molecules in these cells. Berberine inhibits and reduces the damage of podocytes induced by glucose at high concentration, enhances viability and adhesion of podocytes incubated with high glucose, and has remarkable protective effect on these podocytes.