In recent years, the number of patients with diabetes increase rapidly.Diabetic retinopathy(DR), one of the complications of diabetes, is also the important aspect of current and future prevention of blindness in our country. Now, more and more scholar have noticed the important role of immune inflammation in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. In this article, we reviewed the role of interleukin-6(IL-6)in diabetic retinopathy.