The main novel findings are that salidroside can significantly improve the morphological retinopathy in diabetic rats, especially for RGC, in which, the underlying mechanism is related to the regulation of (NLRP3, GSDMD, Caspase-1, IL-1β, IL-18, Of them, NLRP3, NFE2L2 and NFKB1 could be considered as the direct target of SA, so as to provide the protection for RGC in our experimental condition. This evidence concerns the gene IL18 and retinal disorder.