Background　Myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury (I/RI) is the major disease that leads to death in the world. It threatens human health and safety. Caveolin is a protein sequestering and regulating signal transduction in caveolae. Caveolin-3 (Cav-3) plays an important protective role in regulating myocardial I/RI.　Objective　To summarize the research on the role of Cav-3 in I/RI protection in recent years and to provide a direction for further research on this protein.　Content　This review briefly introduced caveolae and caveolins, then described the protective role of caveolin in cardiovascular disease. It also summarized the role of Cav-3 in protecting the heart against myocardial ischemia and I/RI as well as its role in preconditioning that includes ischemic preconditioning (IPC) and ischemic postconditioning (IPTC), anesthetic preconditioning, opioid preconditioning, adiponectin preconditioning and other physical therapy on myocardial I/RI.　Trend　Proposed potential research directions that clinicians and basic scientists may follow.