Evidence has shown that microRNA-665 (miR-665) is highly expressed in the mid-luteal phase compared with the early and end-luteal phase of the corpus luteum (CL) life cycle.However, whether miR-665 is a pos. regulator of the life span of the CL is still unknown.The objective of this study is to explore the effect of miR-665 on the structural luteolysis in the ovarian CL.In this study, the targeting relationship between miR-665 and hematopoietic prostaglandin synthase (HPGDS) was firstly verified by dual luciferase reporter assay.Then, quant. real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of miR-665 and HPGDS in luteal cells.Following miR-665 overexpression, the apoptosis rate of the luteal cells was determined using flow cytometry; B-cell lymphoma-2 (BCL-2) and caspase-3 mRNA and protein were measured using qRT-PCR and Western blot (WB) anal.Finally, the DP1 and CRTH2 receptors of PGD2, a synthetic product of HPGDS, were localized using immunofluorescence.Results confirmed that HPGDS was a direct target gene of miR-665, and miR-665 expression was neg. correlated with HPGDS mRNA expression in luteal cells.Meanwhile, after miR-665 was overexpressed, the apoptotic rate of the luteal cells showed a significant decrease (P < 0.05) and this was accompanied by elevated expression levels of anti-apoptotic factor BCL-2 mRNA and protein and decreased expression levels of apoptotic factor caspase-3 mRNA and protein (P < 0.01).Moreover, the immune fluorescence staining results showed that the DP1 receptor was also significantly decreased (P < 0.05), but the CRTH2 receptor was significantly increased (P < 0.05) in luteal cells.Overall, these results indicate that miR-665 reduces the apoptosis of luteal cells via inhibiting caspase-3 expression and promoting BCL-2 expression, and the biol. function of miR-665 may be attributed to its target gene HPGDS which regulates the balance of DP1 and CRTH2 receptors expression in luteal cells.As a consequence, this study suggests that miR-665 might be a pos. regulator of the life span of the CL rather than destroy the integrity of CL in small ruminants.