acute pancreatitis (aP) exhibits high morbidity and mortality rates. The onset of aP is characterized by early trypsinogen activation.The present study aimed to investigate the expression of microrna (mir)-92a-3p and early growth response protein 1 (egr1), and the effect of mir-92a-3p on trypsinogen activation in the pancreatic exocrine cell line ar42J. mrna and mirna microarrays were used to identify differentially expressed mrnas and mirnas in ar42J cells. a mirna-mrna network was constructed using bioinformatics software, and egr1 and its regulated mirna subnetworks were identified by reviewing previous literature. The results suggested that mir-92a-3p could bind to egr1 3'untranslated region sequence. Subsequently, mir-92a-3p mimic and inhibitor were used to transfect ar42J cells. Following transfection, reverse transcription-quantitative Pcr and western blotting were performed to detect egr1 expression. Furthermore, ar42J cells were cotransfected with mir-92a-3p inhibitor and small interfering (si)-egr1. The trypsinogen activation rate of ar42J cells was measured by flow cytometry. Microarrays and bioinformatics results indicated that egr1 may be a target gene of mir-92a-3p. in addition, the present study suggested that mir-92a-3p downregulated egr1 in vitro and that mir-92a-3p and egr1 expression was associated with trypsinogen activation. Furthermore, mir-92a-3p inhibitor reversed the effect of si-egr1 on trypsinogen activation. in conclusion, mir-92a-3p may negatively regulate the activation of trypsinogen in ar42J cells via egr1.