Abstract： The incidence rate of diabetes in China is increasing year by year,and its complications will continue to rise in the future.The retina is the most metabolically active tissue in the body and is therefore easily affected by diabe-tes.Sustained hyperglycemia damages the microvasculature of the retina resulting in hemodynamic changes,thickening of the basement membrane,loss of pericytes,and blood-retinalbarier(BRB)dysfunction.Diabetes retinopathy is a microvas-cular complication of diabetes,affecting about 35%of diabetes patients.It is a global epidemic in the 21st century and a major cause of blindness among the elderly in developed countries.It is urgent to delay its progress.Statins are famous for their role in lowering blood cholesterol,and are widely used in patients with cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.They have different effects on different pathophysiological pathways involving angiogenesis,inflammation,apoptosis and antioxi-dation,resulting in new treatment options.Some studies have shown that the use of statins can slow down the progress of diabetes retinopathy(DR).Therefore,this article reviews the relationship between statins and diabetes retinopathy,focus-ing on the potential role of statins in treatment.