This study was aimed to explore the effects of insulin on expression of insulin receptor (IR) and insulin-like growth factor-I receptor (IGF-IR) in Reh cells and promoting effect on proliferation of Reh cells. The proliferation of Reh cells were evaluated by CCK-8 assay. The expression levels of IR and IGF-IR mRNA in Reh cells at different times were detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The results showed that insulin promoted the proliferation of Reh cells in dose- and time-dependent manners. Compared with the control group, insulin promoted the proliferation of Reh cells obviously (P < 0.05). When Reh cells were treated with insulin 10(-9) mol/L for 24, 48 and 72 h, the relative quantity of IR expression (2(-ΔCt1)/2(-ΔCt2)) was 2.2520 ± 0.7431, 1.9956 ± 0.9692 and 3.9766 ± 1.3189, respectively, the relative quantity of IGF-IR expression was 1.0803 ± 0.2238, 1.6026 ± 0.6158 and 3.1013 ± 0.1008, respectively, compared with the control group. The expression levels of IR and IGF-IR mRNA in Reh cells treated with insulin were obviously increased compared with the control group. It is concluded that insulin promotes the proliferation of Reh cells. The high expression levels of IR and IGF-IR may closely related with the growth of leukemia cells.