The present study included 3107 Chinese type 2 diabetic patients of Han race, and the results suggested that the rs7688743, rs10011540, and rs3811787 of UCP1 were associated with DR; however, only the rs10011540 (− 122 A/C) of UCP1 was still marginally significantly associated with DR under Bonferroni correction, and the G allele was a risk factor of DR in additive model and in dominant model. This evidence concerns the gene UCP1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus.