Aim To observe whether the activation of aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 ( ALDH2 ) can protect a-gainst diabetes induced liver injury in rat model, and analyze the role of JNK pathway in the liver protection induced by activation of ALDH2 . Methods All male SD rats were randomly divided into three groups: nor-mal control group ( Con ) , diabetes group ( DM ) and ethanol + diabetes group ( EtOH + DM ) . After 8 weeks, the fasting blood glucose ( FBG) level, glyco-sylated hemoglobin ( HbA1c) level, serum AST and ALT levels were measured. The changes of hepatic pa-thology were observed by hematoxylin and eosin ( HE) staining method. The protein expressions of ALDH2, JNK and p-JNK in liver tissue were measured. Result Compared with control group, in DM group, the lev-els of FBG and HbA1c, serum AST and ALT levels were increased significantly. The structure of liver mor-phology was destroyed, disarranged and unclear, the hepatocyte was swollen, and a large number of inflam-matory cells were infiltrated. ALDH2 protein expres-sion was decreased, while the expressions of JNK, p-JNK and the ratio of p-JNK/JNK were increased. Com-pared with DM group, in EtOH+DM group, the levels of FBG and HbA1c, serum AST and ALT levels were decreased. The expression of ALDH2 protein was in-creased, accompanying with the decrease of JNK, p-JNK protein expressions and the ratio of p-JNK/JNK. Conclusion Activation of ALDH2 can protect the liv-er against diabetes induced liver damage in rat model, which may be relevant with inhibiting the JNK path-way.