PAI-1 (plasminogen activator inhibitor-1) is a member of plasminogen cascade with an inhibitory role in plasmin activation. Plasmin is a protease capable of acting on wide range of substrates and, together with metaloproteinases, is a main proteolytic enzyme. Except its role in plasminogen cascade, PAI-1 has an affinity to vitronectin and uPA/uPAR what involves PAI-1 in cell's motility. PAI-1 gene is regulated in response to cytokines, hormones and many growth factors among which TGFbeta is the most important one. The PAI-1 promoter contains SBE, CAGA box, HRE, ERE, NFkB - binding sites, Sp-1, AP-1 and other. Cooperation between transcription factors bound to promoter and cross-talks between kinases and other upstream proteins decide about gene expression. This work describes the present knowledge in this field.