Abstract: Diabetic retinopathy (diabetic retinopathy, DR) is characterized by retinal micro-vasculopathy and neuronal degeneration. At present, a variety of animal models have been developed for DR research through drug and diet induction and genome editing. Among the animals, rodents are the most commonly used mammals for studies of pathogenesis of DR, especially in the fields of genetic research, drug intervention (especially gene therapy, stem cell transplantation) and others. Due to the specific structure of macular which cannot be found in other animals, the non-human primates animal model has become significant important for DR research because its pathophysiological characteristics are very similar to those of human beings. In addition, dogs, pigs, cats, zebrafish ect are also utilized for establishing models of DR. Whether the DR model was induced or spontaneous established, most of them can only be found to show the lesions of early stage of DR, such as retinal microaneurysm, hard exudate, punctate and macular retinal hemorrhage, retinal vein dilatation, abnormality of retinal micro-vessels and so on. Only a few of them can be induced to show some late clinical features of DR, these typical clinical sign usually can be induced by local ischemia or injection of vascular endothelial growth factor. (Int Rev Ophthalmol, 2021, 45：449-454)

Key words: diabetic retinopathy, retinal micro-vasculopathy, neuronal degeneration, model of mammalian, transgenic animals, gene-editing techniques