OBJECTIVE： To study the effect of Elemene emulsion combined with ganciclovir on invasive ability and TIMP-1 mRNA expression in C6 brain tumor stem cells. METHODS： Cells with 3 generations were isolated and cultured from rats’ C6 malignant glioma cell lines， and immunocytochemistry was adopted to detect the protein expressions of stem cell markers CD133， Nestin. 20 rats were randomly divided into blank control group （normal saline）， ganciclovir group （intragastrically administrated， 216 mg/kg）， Elemene emulsion injection group （intravenously injected in tail， 36 mg/kg） and combination group （intragastrically administrated 216 mg/kg of ganciclovir+intravenously injected 36 mg/kg of Elemene emulsion injection in tail）， 5 in each group， once every day， for 10 d. After 2 h of last administration， the blood of rats in each group was collected， serum was isolated and co-cultured 24 h with C6 BTSCs in in vitro culture medium. Boyden invasion test was used to detect the invasive ability of C6 BTSCs， and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction （RT-PCR） method was used to determine the TIMP-1 mRNA expression of C6 BTSCs. RESULTS： Cells with 3 generations had obvious protein expressions in CD133 and Nestin， indicating they were BTSCs. Compared with blank control group， the cell invasion rates of C6 BTSCs in ganciclovir group， Elemene emulsion injection group and combination group were obviously decreased， TIMP-1 mRNA expression was obviously enhanced， with statistical significances （P＜0.05）. Compared with ganciclovir group and Elemene emulsion injection group， the cell invasion rate of C6 BTSCs in combination group was obviously decreased， TIMP-1 mRNA expression was obviously enhanced， with statistical significances （P＜0.05）. CONCLUSIONS： Elemene emulsion injection combined with ganciclovir can obviously inhibit the cell invasion of C6 BTSCs， the mechanism may be associated with promoting the TIMP-1 generation， and combination use shows better effect than single use.