In this paper, we study the pion leading-twist distribution amplitude φ2;π(x, µ) by improving the traditional light-cone harmonic oscillator model within the reconstruction of the function ϕ2;π(x). In order to constraining the model parameters, we calculate its moments ξ n 2;π |µ in the framework of QCD background field theory sum rule (BFTSR) up to 10 th order. Considering the fact that the sum rule of the 0 th moment ξ 0 2;π|µ cannot be normalized, we suggest a more reasonable sum rule formula for ξ n 2;π |µ. Then, we obtain the values of ξ n 2;π |µ 0 with n = (2, 4, 6, 8, 10) at the initial scale µ0 = 1 GeV. The first two moments are: ξ 2 2;π |µ 0 = 0.271 ± 0.013, ξ 4 2;π |µ 0 = 0.138 ± 0.010; and the corresponding Gegenbauer moments are a 2;π 2 (µ0) = 0.206 ± 0.038, a 2;π 4 (µ0) = 0.047 ± 0.011, respectively. After fitting the moments ξ n 2;π |µ, we obtained the appropriate model parameters by using the least square method. The resultant behavior for twist-2 pion DA is more closely to the AdS/QCD and lattice result, but is narrower than that by Dyson-Schwinger equation. Furthermore, we calculate the pion-photon transition form factors (TFF) and B → π TFF within light-cone sum rule approach, which are conform with experimental and theoretical results.