Abstract: As one of the most serious chronic complications of diabetes,diabetic nephropathy is a major cause of chronic renal failure.P38MAPK is an important signal transduction molecule in MAPK signal pathway.It accelerates the process of diabetic nephropathy by stimulating the production of reactive oxygen species,boosting the release of inflammatory mediators,regulating renin-angiotensin system and affecting the formation and degradation of glomerular mesangial matrix.And p38MAPK inhibitor and traditional Chinese medicine with p38MAPK as therapeutic target are expected to become new pharmaceutical preparations for diabetic nephropathy.