Diabetic retinopathy(DR)is one of the chronic microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus in the eye, leading to an increasing incidence of visual quality loss and even blindness in diabetic patients. However, so far, the mechanism of pathological changes leading to DR is very complex and not completely elucidated, and clinical treatment is mostly based on different stages of DR with symptomatic treatment, such as retinal laser photocoagulation, anti-vascular endothelial factor treatment, vitreous excision and membrane peeling surgery, etc. There is still a lack of safe and effective treatment methods, and it is therefore necessary to find new targets for diagnosis and treatment. With the development of molecular biology analysis technology, circular RNA(circRNA)has become one of the important research hotspots at present. It is reported that under the stimulation of various factors, the regulated expression of genes-circRNA regulates the development of DR by regulating the functions of retinal microvascular pericytes, retinal microvascular endothelial cells, and retinal pigment epithelial cells, which are involved in the pathological processes such as retinal basement membrane thickening, vascular leakage, apoptosis, inflammatory response and neovascularization. Therefore, this paper focuses on the research progress of cyclic RNA, competitive endogenous RNA and microRNA in the molecular mechanism of DR pathological alterations and therapeutic prospects, in order to provide some reference for clinical and basic research.