Diabetic retinopathy is one of the serious complications of diabetes, is currently the world's second largest blinding disease. Early epidemiological data showed that the development is related to blood sugar level, diabetes duration, blood lipids, and other factors. In recent years, the correlation of gene polymorphism with DR received widespread attention. Accurately grasp the genetic mechanism in the process of development in the DR and the differences of expression, is of great significance to DR early diagnosis and prevention. So in this article, the progress of gene of DR were reviewed.