ABSTRACT
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the severe microvascular complications caused by diabetes,and the precise pathogenesis of DR is still unsettled now.Recent studies have shown that inflammation and autoimmune responses play important roles in the development of DR.Nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat receptor containing a pyrin domain 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome can trigger a variety of inflammatory responses and involves in various chronic inflammatory diseases.At present,a large number of studies have confirmed that NLRP3 inflammasome promotes inflammatory responses in DR through multiple pathways,which have suggested that inhibition of NLPR3 inflammasome or its involved pathways may have therapeutic effects on DR,and the role of NLRP3 inflammasome in DR will be reviewed in this article.