AIM: To investigate the implanting method of rabbit liver VX-2 tumor and its MR diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) characteristics.METHODS: Thirty-five New Zealand rabbits were included in the study. VX-2 tumor was implanted subcutaneously in 14 rabbits and intrahepatically in 6 for pre-experiments. VX-2 tumor was implanted intrahepatically in 12 rabbits for experiment and three were used as the control group. DWI, T1- and T2-weighted of MR1 were performed periodically in 15 rabbits for experiment before and after implantation. The distinction of VX-2 tumors on DWI was assessed by their apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values. The statistical significance was calculated byanalysis of variance (ANOVA) of the randomized block design using SPSS10.0 software. RESULTS: The successful rate of subcutaneous implantation of VX-2 tumor was 29% (4/14) while that of intrahepatic implantation of it was 33% (2/6) in the preexperiment. The successful rate of intrahepatic implantation of VX-2 tumor in the experiment was 83% (10/12) and 15 tumors grew in 10 successfully implanted rabbits. The DWT signal of VX-2 tumor was high and became lower when the b value increased step by step. The signal of VX-2 tumor on the map of ADC was low. When the b value was 100 or 300 s/mm2, the ADC value of normal group and VX-2 tumor group was respectively 2.57±0.26, 1.73±0.31, 1.87±0.25 and 1.57±0.23 mm2/s. Their distinction was significant (F= 43.26, P＜0.01), the tumor ADC value between b values 100 and 300 s/mm2 wassignificant (Tukey HSP, P＜0.05) and the ADC value between VX-2 tumor and normal liver was also significant (Tukey HSP, P＜0.01). VX-2 tumor developed quickly and metastasized early to all body, especially to the lung, liver, lymph nodes of mediastinum, etc.CONCLUSION: The DWI signal of rabbit VX-2 tumor has its characteristics on MR DWI and DWI plays an important role in diagnosing and discovering VX-2 tumor.