To investigate the apoptosis and inflammatory response of microRNA‐27a‐5p (miR‐27a‐5p) in pancreatic acinar cells of acute pancreatitis (AP) and its related mechanisms. Rat pancreatic acinar cell line AR42J was treated with caerulein (10nmol/L) to construct an acute pancreatitis cell model. Quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction was performed to measure the expression of miR‐27a‐5p; The miR‐27a‐5p mimic was transfected into cell, and the apoptosis rate of the cells was detected by flow cytometry; The levels of TNF‐α, IL‐1, and IL‐6 in the culture supernatant were determined by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay; TargetScans database predicted and dual luciferase reporter gene assay verified the relationship between miR‐27a‐5p and the phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN); The recovery experiment explored the apoptosis and the effects of inflammatory responses. The expression of miR‐27a‐5p decreased gradually (P < 0.05) and the expression of PTEN increased gradually (P < 0.05) with the prolongation of acting time. Upregulation of miR‐27a‐5p significantly promoted cell apoptosis (P < 0.05) and inhibited inflammatory response (P < 0.05); The TargetScans database predicted that the 3'UTR of PTEN contains a base complementary to the miR‐27a‐5p seed region. Cotransfection of wild‐type vector (PTEN‐WT) with miR‐27a‐5p mimic or miR‐27a‐5p inhibitor significantly affected the relative activity of luciferase (P < 0.05), and no significant impact was observed in mutant PTEN‐MUT. Compared with miR‐27a‐5p + pcDNA group, transfection of miR‐27a‐5p mimic and pcDNA‐PTEN significantly increased the expression of PTEN (P < 0.05), decreased the apoptotic rate (P < 0.05), and increased the inflammatory response (P < 0.05). miR‐27a‐5p induced apoptosis and inhibited the inflammatory response of pancreatic acinar cells in AP by targeting PTEN.