Objective To explore the changes in the expression of glucose transporters 1/4(GLUT1/4)and Sirtuins in the retina of rats with diabetes.Methods Twenty 8-week-old healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divid-ed into normal control and diabetic groups.Rats in the diabetic group received a disposable intraperitoneal injection of 60 mg·kg-1 streptozotocin to induce the diabetes model,while rats in the normal control group were injected with an equiva-lent amount of solvent.Body weight and blood glucose were measured at 2-week intervals.At 12 weeks after modeling,color Doppler ultrasound was applied to detect blood flow parameters in the central retinal artery(CRA)of rats;after an-esthetizing rats with sodium pentobarbital,eyeballs were harvested,and the pathological changes of rat retinal tissue were observed by hematoxylin & eosin(HE)staining.The expression of messenger ribonucleic acid(mRNA)for GLUT 1/4 and Sirtuins in the retina of rats were detected by immunohistochemical staining,Western blot and quantitative of reverse tran-scription polymerase chain reaction(qRT-PCR),respectively.Results At 12 weeks after modeling,compared with the normal control group,peak systolic velocity and end diastolic velocity were significantly lower in CRA of rats in the diabetic group(both P＜0.001);there were no significant differences in resistance index and pulsatility index(both P＞0.05).The HE staining results at 12 weeks after modeling showed that rats in the normal control group had clear structure in each layer of retinal tissues,closely and regularly arranged cells,and no obvious pathological changes;rats in the diabetic group showed decreased retinal thickness,blurred boundary of each layer,disordered structure and reduced cell number.Immu-nohistochemical staining at 12 weeks after modeling showed that GLUT 1 was mainly located in the retinal pigment epithelial layer of rats,and GLUT 4 was located in the ganglion cell layer,inner plexiform layer and photoreceptor layer.Western blot results showed that the relative expression of GLUT1 and GLUT 4 protein in the diabetic group were lower than that in the normal control group(both P＜0.05),and the relative expression of SIRT1-SIRT7 protein in the retina of rats in the di-abetic group were lower than those of the normal control group(all P＜0.05).qRT-PCR showed a decreased relative ex-pression of SIRT1-SIRT7 mRNA in the retina of rats in the diabetic group compared with that of the normal control group(allP＜0.01).Conclusion Diabetes can cause altered expression of GLUT1/4 and Sirtuins in the retinal tissue of rats,and GLUT1/4 and Sirtuins may be involved in the occurrence and development of diabetic retinopathy.